


Give Me A Chance

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bullying, Coming Out, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-16
Updated: 2014-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-22 17:58:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 36,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/612619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>au. Louis gets bullied a lot. Harry's captain of the football team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Harry puts the blame all on his coach, honestly. 

If they hadn't gotten carried away before school, talking about football plays and what they're going to do at the next practice, Harry would have gotten to first period on time, and he wouldn't be staring at Tom holding Louis up against a locker, fist directly in front of Louis' squinting face.

Harry's seen this before, obviously, but there had always been more people around. A large group or some of Tom's friends. Something about just the three of them being there changes this whole situation. And the fact that Harry knows he's the only thing standing in the way of Louis being punched in the face, makes him very uncomfortable. 

He's never been good with violence or blood or anything of the sorts. It makes him queasy and scared and he can't even imagine how Louis must be feeling right now. 

Right. Well, he has two options. Possibly three. He could (a) go up and tell Tom to leave Louis alone, and then escort said boy to his class, (b) go get a teacher, or (c), run away. And Harry being Harry, obviously chooses the latter because _he doesn't even know Louis_. Why does he need to go be a knight in shining armour? Why is it up to _him_ to go help Louis? Sure, Louis' a sound lad, but Tom's on the football team and he really doesn't want to get involved. 

As Harry turns around and goes a different route to class, he can barely hear the sounds of Tom mocking Louis and using crude words. He tries to ignore the sound of what he knows is Tom's fist colliding with Louis' face. 

All Harry can do is go to class and hope a teacher walks down the hall.

-

Throughout the rest of the day, Harry doesn't see Louis at all. He sees Tom, of course- who looks exactly the same as he always does. Hair messed up and an ugly scowl covering his face. Harry's only worried because usually he sees Louis eating alone at one of the back tables, reading a book, or hanging his head down. But, Harry also knows that sometimes Louis hides in one of the bathroom stalls, not wanting get his milk poured on his head, or a pizza slammed in his face. Harry really does feel bad for him. 

Harry has one class with Louis. First period Chemistry. They'd been lab partners at the beginning of the school year, the teacher having been too lazy to make a real seating chart, and just assigning partners through last names. Harry could barely get a word out of him, but Louis had usually done all their work, and if he saw Harry copying his test every once in a while, he didn't say anything about it or go to cover his paper. But after a month, they got new partners, and he never really talked to Louis since. 

It was October of this school year that Louis came out. It wasn't really voluntarily. Just someone on the football team seeing Louis kiss another guy, and sort of telling the whole school. Harry didn't think it was a big deal, and it's not like anyone really cared. Except for Louis. Once the whole school found out, Louis hid himself away and stopped talking to all his friends. He became a sort of recluse, and it was then that Tom and the rest of his friends started bullying Louis. Only because they knew Louis would never in a million years stand up for himself. 

-

"Harry?" 

"What?" Harry asks, breaking out his daze and furrowing his eyebrows. He looks over and Niall must be trying to mock him or something, because he raises his left eyebrow and then reaches across the table to flick Harry in the head.

"What's up, lad? You're a bit off this morning." Harry just shrugs his shoulders and picks at the chips on his plate.

"Just tired, I guess." Niall nods his head and goes to take a bite of his sandwich, seemingly happy with that response. "Err, actually. Have you seen Louis Tomlinson at all today?" Niall sets down his sandwich and through a mouth full of food says,

"Tommo? Dunno mate. Wasn't in second period. Why?" Harry blushes and shrugs his shoulders again, trying to be nonchalant. 

"Oh. I missed half of first period and like. Louis' in that class so I was thinking I'd just ask him what the homework assignment was..." Niall gives him a look.

"Mate. You were there for the second half, yeah?" Harry nods his head. "Why wouldn't you just look at the assignment on the board?" Harry blushes even deeper and then sputters for an answer. Niall laughs, loudly, and spits out part of his sandwich on the table. "Haz. Each to their own, I guess. If you wanna get with Tommo, that's fine. I just don't think you're his type, is all." 

"What! No, Niall. It's not that I just.. I was just thinking that, like.." Niall laughs some more and goes back to his sandwich. Harry looks over to Liam for support, but all he gets is a sympathetic pat on his hand.

-

When the final bell rings, Harry walks to the front of the building to pick up some football forms for the lads on the team to sign, and that's when he sees Louis walking out of the nurses office. 

Louis’ got a nasty looking black eye, and what seems to be a blood stain on his sweater. They make eye contact for all of half a second before Louis bows his head and runs out of there. 

-

Louis' in first period the next day, but he's still as quiet as ever. He sits next to Perrie, who is nice enough- but even she can't get a word out of Louis. Harry feels like absolute shit when he sees Louis’ black eye. It's starting to swell pretty badly, and Harry hears Tom talk about it in the locker room when they’re getting ready for practice, saying it only 'spurs him on'. 

Harry wants to throw up.

On Thursday, there's a sub in Chemistry, who tells everyone to find a partner and start working on chapter six questions. Harry brushes off the people calling his name, and walks to back of the classroom and to Louis' seat. 

Louis looks up at him, and up close like this, Harry can see just how bad Louis' black eye really is.

"Err, hey. Want to be partners?" Harry asks. Louis scoffs at him and looks back at his book.

"Why? So I can do all the work and you can copy?” Louis sounds very spiteful and it makes Harry’s stomach churn.

“Uh, no? I just... You’re the only one without a partner...” It’s a lie, obviously. Nobody in the classroom has even started working on the assignment yet. 

“No.” Louis says, tone flat. Harry scratches his head and looks around the room uncomfortably.

“Well... Can I at least sit next to you? My spots been taken.” Louis sighs and waves his hand around.

“I could care less where you sit, Harry. But you’re not copying my work.” Harry frowns, because does Louis really think that little of him? He sits down next to him, anyways, and only frowns a little when Louis puts in his headphones and doesn’t speak to him for the rest of class.

-

Harry’s not in first period on Friday, only because the coach wanted the football team to meet for a little talk about their first game tonight. Harry’s only nervous because it’s his first game as football captain and there’s a bit of pressure on him. 

All through the day, everyone is super hyped, and at the end of the day, the school gathers in the gym for a pep assembly. 

It’s super lame, but somehow it manages to get everyone pumped up. Harry only smiles when he looks up into the stands, and sees Louis. He’s sitting all dejectedly with his arms crossed and a bit of a frown on his face. Harry can’t help but think that Louis looks absolutely adorable.

When the assembly is over, Harry tries to catch up with Louis, but he loses him somewhere in the crowd. Harry’s about to turn around and walk back to the gym so he can meet up with Liam, until he turns and collides with someone. 

“Oh, sorry I- Louis. Hi.” Louis raises his arms and steadies Harry before patting his shoulder.

“Sorry, mate. Can’t just turn around in these hallways, you know?” Harry just watches Louis for a minute, until Louis clears his throat. “Right. Well.” Louis goes to walk away, but Harry stops him, holding out his arm.

“Wait. Louis. I...” Harry swallows loudly. Really, he has no idea what to say. “Are you going to the game tonight?” He settles for. Louis rolls his eyes.

“Yeah. _I’m_ going to the game tonight.” He says, very sarcastically. “Why would I go to the game?” He asks. Harry shrugs his shoulders.

“I dunno. Support the team?” Louis scoffs loudly and begins to walk away. Harry follows him.

“And why would I support the team?” Louis asks. Harry feels like an idiot because _why would Louis go to the game, stupid_. 

“Maybe for me?” Louis stops walking and turns to look at Harry.

“And why would I do that?” He doesn’t say it in a rude or condescending voice. Actually, if Harry were thinking straight, he would think Louis’ voice was almost flirty.

“I dunno. Cause I’m cute?” Louis scoffs, and pats Harry’s cheek.

“Don’t get your hopes up, love.” Louis walks away then, and Harry feels like he’s in some sort of a daze. He’s almost positive Louis just flirted with him. Which can’t be right, because Louis hates him. Louis thinks he’s a dick and associates Harry with the rest of the dicks on the football team that give him endless torchure everyday. 

It still doesn’t stop Harry from smiling like an idiot.

-

They win the game, 4 to 0. Harry is completely buzzing, running around and high-fiving everyone he sees. After a very long group talk from the coach, Harry takes a quick shower and changes out of his sweaty football gear. The team made plans to go meet for some pizza and relax and celebrate their win. However, when Harry’s walking out of the locker room, gym bag in one hand, phone in the other, he sees a group of his teammates standing in a circle, and some particularly bright red trousers in the center of it all. 

To any passerbyer, it would look like a bunch of rowdy teenagers having some fun. But Harry knows that's not what’s going on at all. As soon as Harry hears the word 'faggot'' come from Tom's ever extensive vocabulary, he drops his sports bag and runs over to the circle, breaking through it right as he sees Nathan shove Louis onto the ground. 

"Woah, woah woah! What are you guys doing? Leave him the alone!" Harry yells, extending his hand to help Louis up. Choosing not get involved, several of the guys leave immediately, but quite a few are still standing there.

"Oh come off it, Styles! We were just having a little fun with our pal Louis here." Tom says, pointing over to Louis, who’s got his head hanging down. 

"Yeah! Why's it matter, anyways. He’s just a faggot." Someone calls from the crowd, earning a couple of 'yeah's in the process. Harry notices Louis visibly tense out of the corner of his eye, and Harry turns to boy who'd said it. 

He recognizes him as their goalie, Mark. "No, he's not. And if I hear one more word about one of you giving Louis a hard time, I'll bench you for the rest of the season, and don't think I won't. Now. You lot get out here." Most of the boys leave after that, but a few stragglers stay behind- Tom and Nathan among those few. 

"No. Why should we leave gay boy here alone? What's it to you?" Tom asks. Harry stares at him in disbelief, even though he really has no plan for this. 

He looks over at Louis, who's staring back at him, completely shocked. He looks so defenseless, fed up with everything- with school, with Tom, with all these other bullies, with life. Harry blurts out the first thing that comes to his mind.

"Because Louis' my uhm, my boyfriend. Louis and I are dating. We're together." He doesn't dare look at anyone, just reaches out to intertwine his hand with Louis’. Louis tenses at the touch, but doesn't let go. Harry can hear someone in the crowd gasp, another 'oh shit' coming from somewhere in the audience. When Harry looks at Tom, he's standing a bit gobsmacked, just like everyone else. 

Tom stutters a bit, coughing awkwardly into his fist, and mumbling a 'alright then lads?' and then backs away. Harry and Louis are left standing there, watching as everyone leaves after Tom. They wait there for a long time, still holding hands, but looking everywhere except each other. After several minutes of complete silence, the stadium lights go off, and Harry's pretty sure they're the only people still there. 

Louis' the first one to move, turning to look at Harry before snatching his hand out of Harry's and hitting him. It's not hard, but Harry's still offended by it. 

"What the fuck was that!" Louis asks, eyes wide, utterly confused as to what the hell Harry was thinking. 

"Um, sorry?" 

"Why did you just do that?" Louis exasperates.

"What? Save you? Sorry for looking out for you." Harry mumbles, trying to act casual.

"I can look out for myself, just leave me alone." Louis turns around and starts walking towards the car park. Harry runs back to get his bag before catching up with Louis, and grabbing him by his shoulders to turn him around. 

"Lou, please just talk to me. This doesn't have to be a bad thing! We tell everyone we're dating, you'll get left alone, and we all live happily ever after. It's not like we have to like, do anything or anything. Just, come on." Harry's practically begging at this point. He knew Louis was thick headed, but not this much.

"Why are you doing this?" Louis asks, glaring at Harry with his arms crossed around his chest.

"What? Trying to make high school easier for you? Trying to help you go a week without some sort of new scar? Sorry for caring." Harry says, maybe hoping to guilt Louis into this. 

"Is this some kind of joke? When have you ever cared about me? You let me walk around that bloody school for 4 months, being slammed into lockers, and being spit and kicked on, and you didn't do shit about it. You didn't even spare a second glance at me when we were lab partners for Christ's sake! And now you expect me to believe that you're just going to pretend to be my boyfriend? No. Fuck off. You're a twat." Louis made to turn around, but Harry grabbed his wrist, stopping his movements.

"You're making this so much more complicated than it needs to be! Half the footie team already thinks we're dating, anyways. Tom won't fuck with you anymore, and we don't even have to see each other! Maybe just sit with me during first period and at lunch or something. You'd have to spend a total of like, two hours at school with me everyday. It's either that, or getting the shit beat out of you by Tom and Nathan. Your choice. I'm just trying to help. But if you don't want it, then fine." Louis stared at him for a minute, before rubbing his hands on his face, and pulling at his hair.

Louis sighed, before finally giving in. "Fine, Harry. But if this doesn't work, I swear to God..-" He cuts himself off, breathing out deeply through his mouth, before turning around for a minute. When he looks back at Harry, there are tears in his eyes. 

"Oh, f-fuck, Louis. Don't- Don't cry." He reaches out and pulls Louis into a hug, crushing their bodies together. "Shhh. It's okay, Lou. I promise. Everything's going to be okay. I swear on my life. Please, just don't cry." He pulls out of the hug, but keeps his arms at Louis waist, holding him at arms distance. He brings his hands up to Louis' petite face, swiping his thumbs under his eyes, and getting rid of any tears threatening to fall out. 

That seems to only make Louis cry harder, and then next thing Harry knows, Louis is burying his face into his neck, bringing his arms around Harry's shoulders and sobbing. Harry just holds Louis, not caring about his good football shirt getting tears and snot and saliva on it. He figures it's been a while since Louis had a good cry, and he stands there whispering sweet nothings into Louis' ear until he stops crying. Harry holds him even after the tears stops, not wanting to ruin the moment. 

He pulls Louis out of the hug, this time using his sleeves to wipe away the tears and some of his snot. It's kind of gross, but Louis' eyes are red rimmed, and his nose is still a little runny, so Harry smiles at him, before grabbing his hand and placing a chaste kiss on it. “Okay?” Harry asks. Louis nods his head and wipes his face with his sleeves. Harry can’t help but notice how completely adorable Louis looks right now. All small and cuddly. 

"D'you need a ride home?" Harry asks, grabbing Louis’ hand and leading them out of the stadium. 

Louis silently nods his head, worrying that anything he says will end in him sobbing again- even something as simple as a 'yes'. Harry doesn’t care though, just squeezes Louis' hand tighter before walking to the passenger side of his car and opening it for Louis. He reluctantly lets go of Louis' hand, going to the drivers side and turning on the heat as soon as the car starts. 

They ride mostly in silence, until a Coldplay song comes on and Louis starts to shyly sing along. Harry smiles before turning it up a little, singing it with Louis. Louis' got such a lovely voice. He always used to be the main actor in all the school musicals, and everyone thought he was completely brilliant. Of course, after the whole 'coming out' thing, Louis quit drama. 

Harry turns down the radio after the song finishes, and looks over at Louis, who has his eyes closed, and is sitting criss cross on the passenger seat. Harry thinks he looks like he's meditating, what with his slow breathing and his hands gently laying over his thighs. 

As if feeling someone looking at him, Louis opens his eyes, and a gives a small, shy smile to Harry. Harry chuckles, before turning back to the road, and drumming his fingers on the steering wheel to match the song. 

"So, did you want me to drop you off at home, or do you want to go get something to eat, or see a movie, or..?" Harry asked hesitantly, not sure if he was pushing this thing with Louis too far or not. 

"My house. My mum's working tonight and I've to watch my sisters." Harry tries to hide the disappointment on his face, nodding at Louis.

"Okay, um, where do you live?" 

-

Ten minutes later, they're out in front of Louis' house. Harry can see Louis’ hesitance to get out the car, so he leans over and rubs Louis’ arm soothingly. 

"So, I'll see you on Monday then, yeah? Did you want to pick me up, or meet me somewhere? Should I change my relationship status on facebook?" Louis asks, only half jokingly to try and lighten the mood. 

Harry smiles at him. "Yeah, I s'pose I can pick you up. What time do you usually leave for school?"

"Well, if we're going to start 'dating'," He puts air quotes around the last word, "then I think it's best you know that I absolutely loathe being late, so maybe just pick me up at 7:40, yeah?" He smiles brightly at Harry, who nods his head professionally.

"Yeah, okay. Gimme your phone so I can put my number in it." Louis reaches to get his phone out of his pocket, and places it in Harry's hand. Harry gives his own phone to Louis so he could do the same, and tries not to melt when Louis says, "Thanks for doing this for me," and places a kiss on Harry's cheek before he gets out of the car. 

Harry spends the rest of the car ride trying to get his heart beat to calm down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumblr: hlstlyes


	2. Chapter 2

The weekend passes by far too slow for Harry’s liking. The majority of it is spent texting Louis, which _isn’t_ weird. It’s not. 

They are dating now. Kind of. 

On Saturday night, Louis asked Harry why he was texting him so much and Harry’s excuse was that they have to act like a couple on and off ‘the scene’. And honestly, Harry didn’t even know what that meant, but Louis didn’t question it. 

It’s actually pretty great because Louis is brilliant. He’s quirky and funny and incredibly insightful. Harry has to physically stop himself from calling Louis or asking him if he wants to go out for dinner or lunch or coffee or _anything._

He just doesn’t want to push things because _Louis doesn’t like him like that._

It still doesn’t hurt to send a winky face every now and then. 

-

The best part of the weekend is Sunday night, when Harry’s just getting out of the shower, and he receives a text from Louis.

_thanks for doing this . i know u don’t have to but it’s still really sweet . cant wait to see u tmrrw :)_

-

On Monday morning, Harry gets to Louis’ house at 7:30. He feels really lame about it, but he just wanted to make sure that they weren’t late, and he severely overestimated the amount of time it took to get from his house to Louis’. 

He still calls Louis anyways, just because he doesn’t want to appear creepy by sitting in front of his house for ten minutes. The phone rings a few times before Louis answers it.

“Hello?” Louis’ voice sounds all raspy and cute and Harry can’t help but worry that he’s here _way_ too early.

“Hey, Lou. Uh, I’m here...” He mumbles.

“Oh... I uh. Okay, I just have to-”

“I know I’m like, super early, but I just wanted to make sure I had time to get here and like. Take all the time you need. I don’t mind waiting,” Harry rushes out, cringing at how dumb he sounds. Louis chuckles on the other line, and Harry can hear the sounds of a zipper- probably Louis’ backpack.

“No, it’s fine. I’m ready, anyways. I was just laying down. Didn’t get much sleep last night.” Louis says the last part like it’s a confession, and Harry suddenly feels weird about all this.

“Yeah, me either..” Harry says. He can hear Louis swallow on the other side of the line, and then he sees the front door open, and Louis walk out.

Louis’ wearing a maroon zip up, grey jeans and a pair of black converse and he just looks so _cute_. Harry’s never really paid attention to what Louis has worn, or what _anyone_ has worn for that matter, but now that he’s actually looking, he’s rather impressed.

Louis opens the passenger door and gets in, placing his backpack on the floor between his legs and pulling on his seatbelt. When he’s all settled, he looks over to Harry and gives a nervous smile.

“You alright?” Harry asks, quirking an eyebrow. 

“Yeah, good. You?” Louis’ wiping his hands on his pants and Harry reaches over to brush a piece of hair out of Louis’ face. 

It’s kind of weird, and strangely intimate, only because he doesn’t move his hand away from Louis’ face immediately. He leaves it there for a minute, until he clears his throat and moves away, turning back to face the road.

“Yeah, fine. You ready?” Louis wordlessly nods his head, and Harry spends another minute just sitting there. 

On Friday, this seemed like an amazing idea. But now that they’re actually about to do it, this _thing_ , it just seems a little weird. Harry’s never even really dated before. Sure, there’ve been a few girls here and there, but nothing too serious. 

And Louis’ been through a lot of shit lately, and maybe this whole thing is gonna blow up in their faces. Who’s to say that just because they’re dating means Louis won’t get bullied anymore? Harry can’t actually bench Tom and his friends for the whole season, and they’re gonna figure it out sooner or later. 

“Harry, babe. We’re going to actually be late if we don’t leave right now,” Louis says, patting Harry’s back. Harry didn’t hear anything after the word ‘babe’, but he starts the car anyways, backing out of Louis’ driveway and making their way to school.

They ride in silence, but this time, it’s nice. The radio isn’t on, and Harry can hear Louis breathing, which should be weird, but it’s actually kind of cute. Everything about Louis is cute.

“So. Did you do the chemistry homework?” Harry asks, breaking the silence. Louis looks glad for a sort of distraction, and immediately dives into the conversation.

“Yeah. Was really easy. You do it?” He asks. Harry didn’t do it. He never does. But he doesn’t want Louis to think he’s only asking so he can copy his work, so he lies.

“Yup. Did it during my study period on Friday.” He says.

“What period is that?” Louis asks.

“Uh, 3rd.” Louis’ eyes light up a bit at Harry’s answer.

“Mine too,” Louis says with a smile on his face. 

“Oh, nice. What’s your second? We can meet somewhere.” 

“I have Art second.” Harry nods, and stores this information away in the back of his head. 

“Okay, well I have Marketing so maybe we can meet at the library?” Louis nods his head, and begins fiddling with the window button, rolling his window up and down. 

“What’s the rest of your schedule? Obviously you have lunch fourth. What about the rest?” Harry asks.

“Err, Fifth is AP lit and sixth is Government. Seventh is gym.” Harry nods his head, trying to connect his class route with Louis’. 

“My fifth is Math, sixth is English and seventh is Spanish.” Louis chuckles and starts to shake his head fondly. “What?” Harry asks. Louis just shrugs his shoulders.

“Just. We have completely different schedules.” 

“Ah,” Harry says. “Well, besides our fifth periods being on the complete opposite sides of the school, we’re still relatively close.” Louis makes a noise so Harry knows that he heard him, and they ride the rest of the way to school without saying anything. 

When they pull up to school, it’s still pretty empty of students, probably because there’s almost 25 minutes until school starts. 

Harry parks his car, and is about to get out when he sees Louis fidgeting nervously in his seat. He reaches over and grabs Louis’ hand, intertwining their fingers together. 

Louis’ hand is freezing cold, and looks completely tiny in Harry’s hands. He can see that Louis is pretty nervous, and like, Harry gets that. He does. Louis’ been harassed for months straight, and Harry’s honestly a bit nervous, too. Only because he doesn’t want to let Louis down.

“Hey. It’s gonna be okay, yeah?” Harry says, rubbing his thumb over the back of Louis’ hand. Louis looks up at him and smiles, squeezing Harry’s hand a little too tightly before letting go.

“Yeah. We can wait in here for a while, right? Just.. we still have a minute until we have to be in class so...” Harry nods his head and relaxes a little.

“Of course. And like. If you ever want to just come in here and... not go to class or something. You can. If you want. Just, there’s a spare key taped to one of the windshield wipers. Or if I’m running late after school and you don’t want to stand around.” Louis smiles at him and nods his head.

“Yeah. I’ll keep that in mind,” Louis says, looking out the window and humming softly to himself. It’s quiet in the car for a while, until Harry looks at the clock and sees that it’s 7:54. 

“We should probably go, yeah?” Harry says gently, not wanting to rush Louis. Honestly, Harry’s fine just sitting in this car all day with Louis. It’s cold out and the car is warm and Louis looks so cute. 

“Okay..” Louis says hesitantly. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone, then opens the door and hops out, pulling on his backpack and adjusting his hood. He looks to Harry and quirks his eyebrow. “You coming, Styles? Don’t wanna be late, do we?” Harry smiles and shakes his head, getting out of the car and reaching in the back to grab his bag. 

He locks the car door and then walks over to Louis, smiling at him and holding out his hand. Louis intertwines their fingers together and watches the ground as they make their way to first period.

Nobody really spares them a passing glance. Louis looks really uncomfortable, so Harry lets go of his hand and instead wraps his arm around Louis’ shoulder, only to make him more at ease. Louis looks up at him and smiles, immediately moving his hand to Harry’s waist. 

When they get to their first period, Mr. Smith isn’t in there yet, so Harry walks over to Louis’ seat, and touches Perrie’s shoulder. She turns around and smiles at him.

“Hi, Haz. What’s-” She sees the way Louis and Harry are wrapped around each other and grins widely. “What’s going on _here_?” She asks teasingly. Harry smiles and clears his throat.

“Pez. Would you mind switching seats with me?” Harry asks, trying to cover his smile. Perrie starts to clear up her space.

“Say no more.” She says, putting on her bag and walking away, giving Harry a non too discreet wink as she walks to the front of the class, and to Harry’s spot. 

When Harry and Louis sit down, Louis scoots his chair closer and keeps his arm wrapped around Harry’s waist, leaning his head into Harry’s neck.

“You know, you’re quite cuddly,” Harry comments, resting his head on Louis’. Harry can feel Louis smile against his neck.

“You’re just so warm.” Louis says through a yawn, cool breath ghosting over Harry neck and making him shiver. 

By the time Mr. Smith walks in and class starts, Louis has switched to sitting up right, his hand now laced with Harry’s under the table. 

Mr. Smith is going over what they’re doing for the day, when he stops and looks over at Harry.

“Mr. Styles. Miss Edwards. Please go to your assigned seats.” Harry pretends to pack up his stuff until Mr. Smith turns to the board and starts to write stuff down.

Harry stays next to Louis for the rest of the period. 

-

Walking Louis to his second period is a bigger ordeal than Harry originally thought it would be. Louis has Art which is in the west wing of the school, and Harry has Marketing, which is literally the farthest class away, in one of the portable classrooms on the east wing of the school.

And it’s not like Harry _cares all that much_ about being late- but Louis does and Louis keeps complaining that Harry shouldn’t be late for him.

It’s a little awkward when they get outside the Art room, because Harry’s not sure if they’re supposed to hug or _kiss_ or something. Louis seems to recognize his dilemma, and he reaches up so both his hands are on either side of Harry’s face, and then gets up on his tippy toes to kiss Harry.

It’s not very chaste for a goodbye kiss, and when they pull away, several people shout ‘get some, styles’ and Harry tries not to blush too much. Louis smiles and waves shyly as he walks into the Art room. Harry walks to his marketing class in a slow daze.

-

When they meet at the library for third period, Louis lectures Harry when he finds out he didn’t do any of his homework over the weekend, so they stay in the library for their study period, and Louis helps Harry get all his work done.

“I knew you slacked off in class, but I didn’t know it was _this_ bad.” Louis says, shaking his head when he looks at the paper filled with all of Harry’s missing work. 

“Well.. most teachers just kind of give me extensions. What with football and everything. And then I just forget to do it, you know?” Louis rolls his eyes and starts highlighting the paper.

“Okay, so you have like 3 weeks to turn in all this work before the end of the semester. And if you don’t, all these missing assignments will go in as F’s, and then you’ll be failing all your classes. Honestly, Harry. How are you not worried about this? You have 43 missing assignments! I’d be shitting myself.” Harry just shrugs his shoulders, leaning back in his chair. He’s about to reply to Louis’ rant when a group of guys walk over to them.

Harry can see Louis visibly tense, so he puts his hand on Louis’ thigh and squeezes gently. 

“Hey, Styles! Sick game on Friday!” Collin says, high fiving Harry across the table. 

“Thanks, mate.” Harry grins, high fiving the rest of the boys. The group stays there and talks to Harry for another minute, reminiscing the game and going over all the different plays. When they finally leave, they all mutter a ‘bye harry, bye louis’, and that’s that.

Harry tries not to smile too big at Louis’ confused face.

“I’ve literally never seen those boys before in my life. How do they even know my name?” Louis asks. Harry shrugs and ruffles Louis’ hair. 

“Lou. We’re like the power couple of the school. Everyone knows you now.” Louis rolls his eyes and goes back to highlighting.

“Whatever,” He says when he finishes. “Give me your backpack.” Louis demands, clearing off a spot on the table. Harry puts his bag on the table and waits to see what Louis’ going to do.

Louis just opens the backpack and pulls out one of Harry’s folders and begins looking through the papers.

“Christ, Harry. You have almost all these worksheets, and more than half of them are done. Why haven’t you turned them in?” Harry bites his lip and shrugs his shoulders again.

“I dunno. Just always forget I guess.” Louis closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. 

“Honestly, Harry, I-” Harry stops Louis from talking before he can start his rant.

“Okay, okay. I’ll do them all tonight and turn them in tomorrow. I promise.” Louis gives him a stern stare before putting the papers back in Harry’s folder and tucking them into his backpack.

“Helpless, you are. I swear.” Harry laughs and kisses Louis’ cheek because they’re a couple and couples do that. Louis blushes a little bit, but Harry chooses not to look into it too much. 

“So, you’ll be eating lunch with me, Liam, Zayn and Niall?” Harry checks, sliding his backpack back onto the ground.

“Is that a question or a statement?” Louis asks. 

“Err. Mostly a statement? We could eat by ourselves, if you want. I was just thinking that the ‘coupley’ thing to do would be to eat with other people. So we can convince them of our burning love for eachother.” Louis wrinkles his nose.

“No, that’s fine. I don’t really care where we eat for lunch.” Harry nods and then things get quiet between the two of them.

It’s always weird, because sometimes the silence between them is nice, and relaxing. But then other times, it’s awkward and uncomfortable. 

This is one of those times.

“So. How was your second period?” Harry asks. Louis gives him a weird look, holding his head on his hand.

“It was fine.” Louis says.

“No one gave you a hard time?” Harry feels dumb asking it, but he just wants to make sure Louis’ not keeping anything from him. Obviously, it wasn’t right to ask this question, because Louis blows up on him a second later. 

“No, _Harry_. No one was fucking giving me a hard time, okay? It’s not like every person at this school wants to beat the shit out of me. Honestly. It’s just Tom and those other football dick heads. You don’t have to watch over me like I’m some kid, okay?” Harry sits there in stunned silence, watching Louis breath heavily.

It was honestly a bit hot watching Louis’ face get red and his hands constantly going up to push his fringe out of his face.

“Okay, sorry. Just trying to make conversation...” 

“Well, don’t. I hate small talk.” Louis says matter of factly. Harry deflates after that. He really thought him and Louis were getting along really well. 

The rest of study period is spent in silence while Louis and Harry awkwardly hold hands on top of the library table.

-

 

When Harry and Louis sit down for lunch, Zayn, Liam and Niall are already sitting across from them, and the whole table is completely quiet between the five of them.

“Er, hey lads. This is Louis. Uh. Lou, this is Niall, Liam and Zayn.” It’s still quiet. “Yeah, so. Louis and I are dating.” Niall laughs at that.

“Oh, we know, mate.” He turns to Louis. “Good t’finally meet you, mate. I didn’t know our little Haz here could work so fast. Just last... What was it, H? Tuesday?” He shrugs when Harry doesn’t answer. “Yeah, I think it was Tuesday. He was asking about you. Trying to be all sneaky. I called it, didn’t I, Liam? I knew he had it in for yo-”

“Okay! Thank you, Niall!” Harry cuts in, before Niall can keep talking. Niall laughs again, and when Harry looks at Louis, he’s got a shit eating grin on his face.

“Is that true, Haz?” Harry blushes, but doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t want to embarrass himself further. 

Things at the table are pretty quiet until Liam breaks the silence.

“So, Louis. How is it that our little Hazzy won your heart?” It’s then that Harry realises he hasn’t talked to Niall, Liam and Zayn since Friday and they don’t know that him and Louis aren’t actually dating. He honestly wasn’t even planning on telling them the truth, just because he wasn’t really sure where this thing with Louis would lead to. Louis seems to think over the question for a minute.

“Well,” He starts. “Hazzy here kept bothering me in first period. Claiming that he needed help with the assignment or something,” Niall laughs. “And then he asked for some ‘private’ tutoring. I told him I wasn’t interested, but the boy wouldn’t quit. Anyways. I guess no one can resist the Styles Charm, eh?” Niall’s nodding his head before Louis finishes.

“Well, I’m glad you two are happy together,” Liam says, smiling like the sweet little puppy he is. 

They all dive into conversation after that, talking about the football game and what they did over the weekend. Harry notices that Zayn isn’t saying much, just watching everyone talk and observing. That’s normal behavior for Zayn, but usually not when all the lads are together. And Harry wants to ask what’s up, but he doesn’t want to call Zayn out in front of the whole table, so he saves it for another time.

About ten minutes before lunch is over, Niall, Zayn and Liam excuse themselves, saying they have to go set up for a lab next period- so Harry grabs Louis’ hand and they walk around the school for a while.

“I like your friends,” Louis says. “They’re... fun.” Harry smiles at Louis and nods his head.

“Yeah. Zayn was being a bit weird today, though.” Louis shrugs his shoulders.

“I didn’t think Zayn ever really talked all that much. We have gym together seventh period, and usually he just does his own thing.” 

“Yeah. He used to be like. Really shy. But then Niall and him got assigned as partners and Zayn came to eat lunch with us and then he just never left. He’s aces though. He like, went through this funk last year where he was kind of... I want to say he was depressed, but it wasn’t quite that extreme. Anyways. Him and Perrie started dating and now he’s like, proper in love. She really brought him out of his shell. They’re great together.” Louis nods his head.

“Yeah. Perrie’s great. They make a cute couple.” Louis says. Harry looks down and then adjusts his hand in Louis’, holding on tighter. “What about Niall? What’s his story?”

“Well. Niall and I met in primary school and just never stopped hanging out, pretty much. But he really is amazing. He’s a lot of fun and he doesn’t like, pretend? He’s just always the same in front of everyone. That’s my favorite thing about him. The only downside was last year when he turned 18 and kind of went insane with the drinking and partying. His excuse was that he was Irish, which, yeah, makes sense. But he was getting out of control and me and Liam and Zayn had to sit him down. He was failing all his classes and not even showing up to school half the time. He’s better now, obviously. Sticks to drinking on Fridays and Saturdays. And when the Derby’s on.” Louis smiles and thinks of all the times he’s seen Niall wearing a jersey. 

Out of all of Harry’s friends, Louis can see himself getting along with Niall the best. Not that Liam and Zayn aren’t great, it’s just that Liam kind of seemed like a stick in the mud and Zayn didn’t talk all that much.

“What about Liam, then?” Harry takes a deep breath and pulls his and Louis’ connected hands into his jacket pocket.

“Liam is.. Well. I mean, I love Liam. He’s the greatest person I’ve ever met. He switched to this school halfway through Freshman year, and we had like every class together, so obviously we started talking and stuff. But then he started dating Danielle Peazer. You remember her?” Louis thinks back to Sophomore year and pictures Liam walking hand in hand with a dark skinned girl that had insanely curly hair.

“Yeah, the dancer, right?” Harry nods his head.

“Yup. Well, they were the dream couple, I’d say. Always together, super in love. I thought they were going to jet off to Vegas and get married. But at the beginning of this year, Dani got this offer to go to a school in _London_ , for free. It’s like a dancing academy. Super pretentious. Obviously she took it, and broke up with Liam right before she left.” Louis makes a face.

“Ah. That’s rough.” Louis says. Harry sighs and runs a hand through his hair.

“Yeah... Liam was an absolute _wreck_ on the inside. On the outside he seemed perfectly fine. But he started working out a lot and running and throwing himself into his school work. It was kind of sad to watch. And it was especially hard for him to see Zayn and Perrie walking around and kissing. He kind of closed himself off from us for a while. We got him back, though. He still always gets this look in his eyes that kills me whenever is see it. He’s getting better, though.” Louis shakes his head when Harry’s done talking.

“It’s crazy how different people are from how they act in school to how they really are. Like, you know I don’t really have any friends, so people feel like they can say anything around me, because like, who am I gonna tell? I mean, I know far too much about Zayn and Perrie’s sex life from sitting next to Perrie in first period. But like, I just hear people say things to their friends, and it just changes my whole perspective on them.” Louis says.

“So, say someone is acting like a dick in class, and you completely hate them, but then you find out it’s because they’re being evicted from their home, and somehow that excuses their behaviour. Because they’re _losing their home_. Like, I would go insane if I was in that situation. Does that make sense?” Louis asks.

“Yeah, definitely. That’s part of the reason I think I wanted to do this with you. Just because... Well, for one, I hate Tom with a burning passion, but also because I don’t really _know_ you, but you let me copy off you so I figured you weren’t all that bad.” Louis smiles at him. 

“Yeah. I was a bit shocked when you told everyone we were dating. Just because we’ve only ever talked a few times and it was a bit out of the blue. I’m surprised everyone believed you so easily.” Louis replies. Harry shrugs, considering the status of his and Louis’ new relationship, it’s being slightly downplayed. Most likely because people don’t know what to think of it. _football captain harry styles dating openly gay social recluse_ is something that should be on the top of the charts right now. 

“People are scandalous at this school. They’ll believe anything they hear as long as they can start rumors about it.” Harry says. Louis scoffs, shaking his head.

“Don’t I know it.” Louis mumbles under his breath. The bell rings a minute later, so Harry takes Louis to his class and kisses him gently before sending him on his way.

“See you at my car after school, yeah?” Harry says to Louis. 

“Alright!” Louis calls after him. 

-

The rest of the day goes by pretty slowly. By the time Harry gets to sixth period, he’s ready to go home and nap. Preferably with Louis because even though they’re not actually like that together, Harry has learned in the short time he’s been with Louis that Louis really likes a good cuddle. 

Harry is honestly really glad that he started this with Louis, only because Louis is a lot of fun, and he can see this whole plan going really well.

By the time he’s walking to his car after school is over, he ends up having to wait almost ten minutes for Louis to get to his car. Louis wasn’t answering his phone, and Harry didn’t want to go looking for him, afraid that Louis would show up right when he left.

When he sees Louis slightly running toward the car, after most students have already left, Harry lets out a sigh of relief.

“Jeez, Lou. What took you so long?” Louis kisses him quickly and then opens the car door. He waits for Harry to get seated before he starts talking.

“Sorry, babe. We were testing in gym today and I had to go last because of my last name and the final bell started ringing right when I got into the locker room so I had to rush to get changed. And my phone was in my backpack. Really sorry. I didn’t mean to make you wait so long.” Harry can’t help but sense something off with Louis, but he shrugs his shoulders, brushing it off.

“It’s okay. I was just worried because like. You know how locker rooms are. Lots of _bullies_ in there.” Louis laughs nervously and puts on his seatbelt.

“You know, there were none of those in the locker room, today. Believe or it not. Anyways. How was your day, then? Pretty good?” Harry watches Louis for another minute before deciding to just leave it and answering Louis’ question, instead.

“Yeah, was good. How about yours?” He asks. Harry can actually hear Louis swallow and something is definitely wrong.

“Amazing. Only because I have you,” Louis says, blinking his eyes lovingly. Harry breaks his stare after that, trying not to giggle like a teenage girl. Louis turns up the radio then, too loud for conversation, and Harry starts the car.

He has to turn down the radio about halfway out, and he looks at Louis through the side of his eye.

“You wanna like. I don’t know. Hang out? Go get some food? Sorry I’m not really sure what you normally do?” Harry says awkwardly.

“Oh. Well my mum’s work schedule changes on and off but I need to get home and watch my sisters while she’s gone so. Maybe we can hang out another time?” Harry frowns but doesn’t let it bother him. _if louis wants to hang out with you louis will hang out with you_.

When he drops Louis off, Louis squeezes his hand and kisses his cheek.

“I’ll text you, yeah?” Before Harry can reply, Louis is closing the passenger door and running up the steps to his house.

Harry can’t help but feel like Louis is keeping something from him. 

-

Louis never ends up texting him. Not like Harry expected him to, what with Louis acting so weird. Harry honestly has no idea what that whole thing was about. Louis was shaking his leg nervously and talking too fast and practically sprinted out of the car when they got to his house. And even though Harry knows next to nothing about Louis and his family’s situation, he’s almost positive that Louis texted him this past weekend and told him his mum was working the night shift all week.

And it’s not like Louis owes Harry any kind of explanation. They’re not like that. All Louis is expected to do is hold Harry’s hand, give him a kiss every now and then, and maybe show up to a few of the football games. It’d still be nice to be let it on some of the important details, and Harry thinks maybe they should have a bit of a talk about what’s expected of this relationship, because anytime Harry wants to take it farther and hang out outside of school, Louis always makes up an excuse. 

Harry had called Zayn later on in the day to see if Louis was acting weird in gym, but Zayn wasn’t any help.

“Hello?” Zayn said, sounding like he had just woken up.

“Hey, mate. You alright?” Harry asked, trying to sound apologetic in case Zayn was sleeping.

“Yeah, good. Just laying down. What’s up?” Harry let out a sigh and started nervously pacing around the room.

“I was just wondering if you noticed Louis being off today in gym? He said you guys had seventh period together so. I figured you would be my best bet.” Harry mumbled, suddenly realizing how lame he sounded.

“Sorry mate. I bunked gym today. We had a sub and it was a free day so.” Harry stopped walking and his eyes widened slightly.

“Free day? Louis said you guys did fitness testing?” 

“Hell if I know. Sorry, man. I don’t remember.” Harry sighed and rubbed his hand over his face.

“Alright, it’s fine. I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?” Zayn mumbled his goodbye and hung up. Harry was even more confused than before.

-

The next morning, Harry got to Louis’ house at a slightly more reasonable time than the day before. He doesn’t even get a chance to call Louis before the boy is running out of his house and into Harry’s car.

He’s wearing black jeans and navy TOMS with a denim jacket and he’s smiling at Harry brightly. Louis smells like toothpaste and cologne and Harry doesn’t even realize that Louis has been talking to him.

“...and like. It’s kind of embarrassing but you know how mum’s are.” Harry has no idea what Louis was talking about, but he doesn't want to be rude so he nods his head.

“Right. Mum’s. Very embarrassing.” He says. Louis smiles and looks like he’s waiting for Harry to continue, and when Harry doesn’t say anything, Louis quirks his eyebrow.

“So you will?” Louis asks. Harry scratches his head.

“Will what?” Harry asks, causing Louis to groan and snap his fingers in Harry’s face.

“Earth to Harry. Were you listening to a word I said? My mum wants. To. Meet. You. Tonight. Or today. After school, really.” Louis says, watching Harry closely.

“Oh!” Harry says. “Of course. I- Yeah. Sure. Meeting mum. Sounds good.” Louis rolls his eyes and leans back in the seat before putting on his seatbelt. 

“Okay, freak. Let’s go.” 

_“Heyyyyyyy.”_ Harry says. “M’not a freak.” Louis laughs and rubs Harry’s hair sympathetically. 

“Okay, babe. Whatever you say.” Louis jokes. Harry smiles and starts the car, immediately turning the radio down when Louis turns it up too high. Louis makes a horrified face at Harry, and instead goes to turn up the heater. When he’s turning the dial, Harry sees a stream of bruises on Louis’ arm from where his jacket is slipping up. 

“Lou? What happened to your arm there?” Harry asks. Louis immediately goes to cover his arm and hides it by his side.

“Nothing.” He says, then seems to think better of it. “Well. Obviously something happened. I just hit it on a table in Art. My arm was like. Under the table and when I lifted my hand to answer a question, it bashed against the table. Hurt like a bitch. I’m okay, though.” 

“Those looked like fingerprints, Lou.” Harry says slowly. 

“Well they’re not, okay, Harry? Mind your own business.” Louis snaps. Harry holds his hands up in defense.

“Christ, sorry. Don’t bite my head off.” Harry mumbles, turning into the school parking lot.

“Well. Sorry. I didn’t mean to get so mad but. Really, Harry. I did only hit it on the table. Those aren’t fingerprints.” Harry looks at Louis and frowns.

“Show me again, then.” He says. Louis furrows his brow and opens his door, putting on his backpack and making eye contact with Harry.

“No! Fuck off. Mind your own fucking business, Harry!” He shouts. Harry looks around, and is thankful that no one is looking at them. Before he can reply, Louis is stomping angrily into the school with his arms crossed over his chest. 

Harry sighs and is about to get out when he sees Louis phone sitting on the passenger seat. He looks around, and Louis is completely out of sight. He picks it up and considers looking through it. He has no idea what’s going on with Louis right now, why he’s so testy, and a little look through his phone could solve a few of Harry’s questions.

He unlocks it, because he caught a glimpse of Louis’ password yesterday at lunch, and he’s about to look through the messages, until the thought of betraying Louis like that crosses his mind and his stomach sinks. Obviously something is going on, but if Louis wanted him to know, Louis would tell him. 

So, he pockets Louis’ phone and grabs his backpack before walking into the school and trying to make his way to Chemistry. He gets stopped by a few people, but the only one he actually stops to talk to is Ed.

“Hey, mate!” Ed says, ruffling Harry’s hair. “Troubles in paradise, yeah?” Harry furrows his brow.

“Huh?” He asks. Ed rolls his eyes.

“Your boyfriend looked mighty mad just a few minutes ago. Stormed into Smith’s room.” 

“My b- Oh. My boyfriend. Louis. Uh. Yeah, no we’re fine. He’s just a bit tired, I think.” Harry lies. Ed nods his head. 

“Oh, yeah. I feel him. These dicks here fuckin’ standing in the middle of the hallway. Easy enough to piss anyone off.” Harry nods his head, even though that really has nothing to do what with he just said, and says bye to Ed.

“Better go make sure he’s okay....” Harry points his thumb back to the direction of the Chemistry room, and Ed waves him off.

When Harry gets into the class, Louis is sitting in his spot, looking cranky and impossible cute. Harry walks over to him and kisses his cheek.

“Hi, Love Bug.” Harry says, taking the seat next to him. Louis rolls his eyes and scoots his chair away from Harry a little. Harry puts his arm around Louis’ waist and leans his head on his shoulder. “You left something in my car.” Harry sing songs. Louis looks at him, and Harry watches as he figures out what it was.

“Did you atleast grab it?” Louis asks. Harry shrugs his shoulders.

“I forget. Maybe if you.. I dunno. Smiled? I could remember.” Louis looks completely unimpressed with him.

“Seriously, Harry?” Harry’s response is a smile and Louis holds his glare for all of thirty seconds before he lets out a small smile. Harry grins in return, and presses a kiss to Louis’ cute little nose before placing Louis’ iphone in his hand.

“Are you done being mad at me? I’m sorry I stuck my nose in your business, and I’ll always be here to listen if you want to tell me something. Anything.” Harry says sincerely. Louis’ face softens at that and he grabs Harry’s hand.

“It really is nothing to worry your pretty little head over, okay? And I’m sorry for yelling at you. I was out of line.” Harry smiles and leans over to kiss Louis, only because he can see that some people in the class are watching them. Louis finally scoots his chair closer and rests his head on Harry’s shoulder, grabbing Harry’s hand so he can play with his fingers. 

When Mr. Smith walks in the room, he doesn’t say anything about Harry not sitting in his assigned seat.

-

The rest of the day goes pretty normal. Louis yells at Harry for not doing any of his homework, Zayn strikes up a conversation with Louis at lunch, Harry and Louis act like a disgustingly in love couple, Louis takes 7 minutes to get to Harry’s car after school. 

“Sorry! Sorry!” Louis says, running up to Harry and kissing him. “I was talking to Zayn in the locker room. Honestly, I always thought Zayn was kind of a douche but _wow_. I think I might be in love.” Harry’s stops frowning after he hears Louis say he was with Zayn, because the thought of Louis getting along with his friends makes Harry’s heart beat fast. 

“You were with Zayn?” Harry asks dazedly. Louis nods his head and starts to get into the car.

“He was showing me some pictures of these tattoos he’s been drawing up. That man is _sick_ , Harry. It’s incredible how talented he is.” Harry nods his head. 

“Yeah, he gave me a tattoo. Last year.” Louis turns to him with wide eyes. 

“What! I didn’t know you had a tattoo?” Harry nods his head and rolls up his henley to show Louis the star on his arm.

“I’m getting it filled like, next month I think.” Louis grabs Harry’s arm and looks at. 

“Wow. That’s aces, mate.” He lets go of Harry’s arm and puts on his seatbelt. “He told me I’d look good with a chest piece, but. I mean, I’m not really interested in getting tattoos. I just like the way they look on people.”

“You should definitely give it some thought.” Harry says, driving out of the school parking lot.

“Yeah?” Louis says, looking outside his window. “I mean. It would take some definite consideration but. Who knows.” Harry smiles at Louis and turns down the radio when they get to Louis’s house.

“So. I’m meeting your mum? Right now?” Harry asks. Louis nods his head. “Isn’t it a bit early to be meeting parents?” Harry jokes, only to hide the fact that he’s actually kind of nervous. 

“Oh, come off it. Mum will love you.” Louis gets out of the car and connects his hand with Harry’s as they walk inside. Louis takes off his shoes as soon as he gets inside, throwing his backpack on the floor and leading them up the stairs.

Harry looks around at Louis’s house. It really isn’t what he expected. Harry knew that Louis had four sisters, but the house is more than a little messy. It’s a neat kind of messy, though. Like all this stuff is supposed to be where it is. Louis’ house smells like cinnamon and hairspray and there are crayons everywhere Harry looks. Louis leads him into the kitchen, where his mum is. 

“Mum,” Louis says, grabbing her attention. When she turns around, Harry smiles shyly. “Err, this is Harry. Harry, this is my mum. Jay.” Louis’ mum comes over to him and gives him a hug.

“Hi, Love! It’s so nice to meet you!” She says, rubbing Harry’s back much like Louis does whenever they hug. 

“You too, Jay.” Harry replies. When she pulls away, she goes to Louis and gives him kiss before going back to the stove. 

“Louis has told me so much about you. Glad I can finally put a face to the name. Are you staying for dinner?” She asks. Harry looks over to Louis who smiles and shrugs his shoulders.

“Uh, yeah. I will, thanks.” Jay smiles and before she can talk anymore, Louis grabs Harry’s arm and pulls him out of the kitchen.

“Right, well, we’ll be in my room, mum.” Jay calls out an ‘okay’ and Harry realises that he’s _going to see louis’ room_. As they’re walking back down the stairs, Louis turns to Harry. “She knows.” Is all he says.

“Knows what?” Harry asks.

“About this thing. That we’re not really like. Dating.” Harry’s mouth opens in shock.

“You _told_ her?” Harry asks. Louis shrugs.

“She’s my mum! I tell her everything. I wish I hadn’t though. She’s taking this whole thing too far. Whenever she’s on the phone it’s, ‘oh louis has found just the sweetest young man. his name is harry styles. they’re dating and they love each other’ blah blah, and I told her it wasn’t like that but. You know how mums are.” Harry smiles and nods his head. He’s been considering telling his mum about Louis, but he wasn’t sure if he should tell her _everything_ or just part of it. 

Louis leads him in front of a door and turns to look at him.

“Ready to see my completely amazing, wonderfully spectacular room?” Louis asks. Harry nods his head excitedly and Louis makes him cover his eyes before he opens the door. When Harry opens his eyes, there isn’t much to look at. 

Louis’ walls are painted dark blue with white trimming, and his bed sheets are the same color. There’s a desk and a laptop, and a dresser and a nightstand with a lamp on top, but that’s really all there is to it. 

“Wow, seems.... cozy?” Harry compliments. Louis laughs and leads Harry further in the room. 

“Yeah. I don’t really like a lot of clutter. And I just cleaned it because I wanted to give off a good first impression. Don’t expect my bed to be made every time you come over.” Harry’s stomach flips at the mention of a messed up bed and he watches as Louis takes off his jacket and flops onto his bed. “Well, come sit down. Don’t be awkward.” Louis says, patting the space next to him. 

Harry kicks off his shoes and sits next to Louis.

“What. Is this a tempur pedic?” Harry asks excitedly. 

“Oh, yes.” Louis says proudly. “It’s my pride and joy. So comfy innit? This is where I spend most of my day.” Harry laughs and rolls around the bed a little, accidently bumping into Louis. 

“How do you get out of bed in the morning?” Harry wonders. 

“Well sometimes I stay in it for too long and the foam contorts to my body and it gets uncomfortable. Also my mum nags.” Harry smiles and turns over so him and Louis are facing eachother, faces just inches apart. 

“I like your room. It’s... cozy.” Louis smiles and runs his hand through Harry’s hair. 

“Fancy a nap?” Louis asks. Harry nods his head before he can even really process what a nap with Louis would mean. Louis grins and pulls down the covers, moving it over his and Harry’s body. Louis turns his back to Harry and Harry’s not really sure if that’s an invitation to cuddle, but he wraps his arm around Louis anyways, fitting their bodies together. 

Harry’s nose ends up at the back of Louis’ neck and Louis’ hair smells like coconuts and berries and a little like sweat but Harry likes it. 

-

They nap for three hours, and it honestly could have been longer if Harry’s phone hadn’t started ringing. He searches for it blindly, and doesn’t check who it is before he answers.

“Hello?” He asks, voice deep from just waking up.

“Hi, love.” 

“Hi, mum. What’s up?” Harry says, trying to be quiet enough not to wake Louis. 

“Just working. What are you doing?” She asks. Harry looks down at Louis and his eyes land on Louis’ lower back, where his shirt is riding up and his pants are riding down. Louis’ got such tan skin and it looks _so_ soft.

“Just woke up from a nap, actually.” He says. 

“Oh, I didn’t mean to wake you. Sorry about that, babes. Are you at home?” 

“No, I’m at a friends.” Harry struggles through the word ‘friend’ but his mum doesn’t really know about Louis yet, and now isn’t a good time to tell her.

“Okay. Be home by 8, yeah?” 

“Alright. Love you.” 

“Love you, too.” She says. Harry hangs up his phone and checks through his messages. One’s from Zayn:

 _you got a keeper , mate ! :D aha_ Harry ignores the meaning behind that one, and goes through the rest, Niall asking what the Spanish homework was, Ed inviting him to a party on Saturday, and another from his mum from two hours ago asking him what he was doing. 

He only replies to Niall's, _hell if i know mate_ and then goes back under the covers. He’s about to put his arm back around Louis' waist when he turns around and squints at Harry.

“Your mum doesn’t know about me?” He asks, voice raspy and hair all messed up.

“Er. Not yet. She works a lot and I haven’t really had the chance to tell her.” Louis nods his head in understanding. 

“Time’sit?” He asks. 

“Uh, half 6.” Harry responds, brushing some of Louis’ hair out of his face. 

“Is this weird?” Louis questions. Harry thinks about the fact that he was just ogling the beautiful curve of Louis’ body and shakes his head.

“I don’t think so.” He replies. Louis nods his head, yawning a bit and breathing it onto Harry’s face.

“I don’t think so, either.” To Harry’s dismay, Louis sits up after that and moves out of reach. He stretches his arms above his head, though, which makes his shirt ride up and Harry tries his best to not be obvious with his staring. “I hate when I take naps this long after school. Really fucks up my sleep,” Louis says, causing Harry to break out of his gaze. 

“Yeah, same.” Harry sits up after that and tries to fix his hair as best he can.

“Just leave it, mate. There’s no taming that nest of hair.” Harry frowns, but stops messing with it. Louis reaches off the side of the bed and picks up his phone, texting someone named Greg. 

“Who’s Greg?” Harry asks. Louis immediately hides his phone and glares at Harry.

“Remember that privacy thing we talked about?” Louis sneers. Harry holds his hands up in defense.

“Sorry. Just a question.” Louis lifts his phone back up and continues typing. “Is he your boyfriend?” Harry asks. Louis looks over at him and tries to glare, but he looks more like he’s trying not to smile.

“No. Definitely not my boyfriend.” 

“Then why can’t you tell me? C’mon. I like hot gossip just as much as the next guy.” Louis smiles sadly and locks his phone, putting it back down on the floor. 

“Okay. Greg's just this guy.” Louis says. Harry quirks an eyebrow.

“ _Just_ a guy?” He asks. Louis sighs loudly and pushes at Harry’s arm.

“He’s _just_ a guy. Who goes to Uni in Manchester that I... was friends with over summer break, okay?” Louis looks like he’s blushing, so Harry plays it up.

“ _Just_ a guy who goes to Man U that you're friends with?” He teases. Louis rolls his eyes.

“God, you’re worse than my mum.” Louis mumbles. “He is just a friend, really. Like, you know that coffee shop inside the mall?” Harry nods his head. “Well I went there a lot during the summer and we just hit off and we started texting and stuff.” Louis says.

“And stuff?” Harry questions. 

“Why do you even care?” Louis grumbles. Harry puts his head on Louis shoulder.

“Because. I told you if you ever wanted to talk to me, you could. I’m here to listen, remember?” Louis sighs and rests his head on top of Harry’s. 

“Okay. But this stays in confidence, right?” Harry nods his head, making a zipping motion over his lips. Louis clears his throat. “Right. Well, Greg and I _are_ just friends. After we traded numbers we started texting non stop and we hung out and went on what I _thought_ were dates. 

He invited me to this party right before he left to Uni, and that’s who Siva saw me making out with before he told the whole school. I’ve had girlfriends before, you know? Like Hannah. We dated for almost a year. But whenever I was kissing a girl or something, I would think, ‘gosh. i can’t see myself ever marrying a girl.’ And obviously that scared the shit out of me. So I just kinda started going with the flow and that’s when I met Greg and realized I might be gay.

Anyways, so Greg comes in the picture, and he’s really cute and nice and treats me good, so I obviously let him, like. You know... fuck me. And I don’t regret it or anything, because that’s how I really figured it out. But then he went back to Uni and met some Art major with a job and all that good stuff. We still talk every now and then but. Other than that there’s nothing going on between us.” Harry takes a minute to process all of this information.

Louis let some Uni guy fuck him. That sentence plays over and over inside Harry’s head. 

“Haz? You gonna say something?” Louis asks nervously. Harry shrugs.

“I don’t really know what to say...” He feels like a dick because Louis just told him this very personal information and Harry’s pretty much just throwing it back in his face. 

“Maybe tell me how much your first time sucked?” Harry swallows loudly.

“Err. I would it’s just.. I haven’t actually.. done that yet.” Louis lifts his head up so fast, Harry feels like he’s got whiplash.

“ _What._ ” Louis says. “You’re a virgin?” Harry nods his head.

“Yes, I’m a virgin. Go ahead and laugh.” Louis shakes his head, very seriously. 

“No, I mean. There’s nothing wrong with being a virgin, I just.. I thought...” Louis sputters for what to say. “Okay, you know how I said people say things around me because they think I won’t tell anyone?” Harry nods. “Well.. I just hear girls talk about you a lot so. I just. You know.” Harry laughs and shakes his head. 

“I mean, like. I’ve done stuff before but nothing like that. Yet.” He confesses. 

“But you could if you wanted to..” Louis says.

“Well, yeah. I _could_. And I’ve been offered, but. I don’t want to just give my virginty up to someone who doesn’t even give two shits, you know? Like, someone who thinks of it as _just sex_. It’s kind of sappy but I want it to mean something.” Louis grabs Harry’s hand and starts rubbing it soothingly. 

“I think that’s sweet, Haz. Obviously feel free to tell me to fuck off but. Are you gay?” Harry looks up at Louis and sees the genuine interest in his eyes.

“I mean. I’m not gonna say I’m completely straight. I just haven’t spent much time thinking about it. Guys are fit sometimes, eh?” Louis laughs at that, hiding his face into Harry’s chest.

“Yes. Guys are definitely fit sometimes.” Louis agrees. They stay quiet for a minute, holding hands on top of Louis’ bed and cuddling into each other. Louis pulls away after a while and looks into Harry’s eyes. “I like talking to you. Ever since this whole.. thing happened with my coming out situation, I kind of lost some of my best mates and it’s been a while since I’ve had like, A genuine friend. We’re friends right? I can call you my friend?” Harry nods his head. “You know. You’re the first person I’ve told about Greg.” Louis admits. “I mean, I love my mum and all, but there’s just some things you can’t tell her.” Harry laughs and pats Louis’ cheek. 

“Definitely.” They sit in silence for a minute until the door knocks and Louis pulls away. Jay walks in and smiles at them.

“Hi, loves. Dinner is ready. Louis, your sisters are going to be here soon.” Louis groans and frowns as his mum shuts the door, then turns to Harry.

“You get to meet the rest of the Tomlinson family today!” Louis exclaims. “Hey, if you thought _I_ was handsy, wait until you meet my sisters. They don’t know the definition of the word personal space.” Harry brushes off Louis’ warning. 

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” He says, standing up and fixing his jeans. 

“Okay.” Louis says. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you...” He smiles at Harry and grabs his hand, leading him upstairs and into the dining room. Harry watches Louis set the table until the front door slams open and bunch of girls run into the kitchen. 

Louis smiles and sets down the silverware, walking over to Harry and wrapping his arm around his waist. 

“Lottie, Fizz, Daisy and Phoebe. This is Harry. My boyfriend.” Harry’s heart flutters and he waves at the girls, giving his best smile. 

The twins grin and run over to him, hugging him around his waist, effectively knocking off Louis’ hand. Louis huffs and walks back to the table, setting down the silverware. The twins eventually let go, and Lottie smiles at him. 

“Wow. I thought you were kidding when you said he was fit.” Lottie says to Louis. Harry blushes and looks over at Louis who looks like he’s about to kill her. 

“Yes, thank you, Lottie. For effectively making our guest uncomfortable.” Lottie laughs and pats Harry’s shoulder as she walks by. Fizz awkwardly stands there until the twins pull Harry down and start petting his hair, rubbing their hands all over his face. 

When they start eating dinner, Harry’s surprised to find the conversation isn’t steered toward him at all. They mostly talk about what the girls did at their dad’s house and how school is going. Harry learns that the girls go over to their dad’s house, who lives about 15 minutes away, every Saturday to Tuesday.

Harry loves the way Louis interacts with his sisters. It’s a fun relationship they all have because they tease each other a lot, but Harry can see just how close they all are and how interested in each other’s lives they are. 

And apparently, Harry being a guest doesn’t excuse him from having to help clean up after dinner while Louis’ mum gets ready for work and the girls get ready for bed.

“I like your family.” Harry says as he gathers up the plates. 

“Yeah?” Louis replies, opening the dishwasher and organizing the silverware into each of their respective compartments.

“Yeah. At my house it’s just me and my mum and stepdad, since my sister is at uni, so it’s usually pretty quiet around the house.” Louis nods his head and once Harry puts the last dish away, he leans against the counter. 

“Well, you’re welcome here anytime you want. Especially if you’re so willing to help me clean up the dishes.” Harry laughs and he’s seriously considering walking over to Louis and kissing him, but then Daisy and Phoebe come running through the kitchen door.

“Night, Louis!” They yell, running up to him and hugging his waist. 

“Night, lovelies.” He says, rubbing their heads. The twins run over to Harry next, giving him a hug and saying goodnight. 

Louis and Harry talk for a minute, about nothing in particular, until Jay comes in a kisses them both before leaving for work. It’s then that Harry sees the time.

“Shit. I better go. Mum wanted me home at 8.” Louis nods his head and walks Harry to the door. 

“So, I’ll see you tomorrow morning, then?” Louis asks, reaching up and giving Harry a hug. Harry hugs him back and moves them back and forth for a minute before reluctantly pulling away.

“Yup.” He pops the ‘p’ and turns around, grabbing onto the doorknob. “Night, Lou.” Harry opens the door and steps into the cool air, waving at Louis as he walks to his car. Louis watches him from the doorway until Harry drives down the street. 

All the way home, Harry can’t help but think about how much he wants tonight to be a recurring thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumblr: hlstyles


	3. Chapter 3

When Louis wakes up in the morning, it’s to the sound of his phone ringing. He glances at his clock and sees that it’s 7:31 and he promptly kicks his bed sheets off his body and not-so-gracefully falls to the floor. 

“Hello?” Louis croaks into the phone, looking around his room for an outfit he can put on.

“Hey, m’here,” Harry says. Louis can hear music playing in the background of Harry’s car and he mumbles a ‘be right out’ before tossing his phone on his bed and getting up.

He does a shitty job of fixing his hair, and pulls on a pair of sweatpants and a tight red jumper he hasn’t worn since last year. He tries to make himself look presentable but, it’s not really working. 

He doesn’t even bother to brush his teeth because christ he’s gonna be late to school. He doesn’t even know what he’s doing so he grabs his backpack and carelessly pulls on a pair of white socks and his Vans before jogging out to the car. 

Harry smiles at him a bit too brightly when he opens the passenger door, and when he catches a look at Louis, his smile falters.

“Alright there, mate?” He asks, voice sounding concerned. Louis looks up at him and glares.

“I just woke up.” Louis states, flicking his fringe out his face. He has every intention of being a shit to Harry today, just because his morning went so poorly and his mouth tastes like arse. 

“Ah,” Harry says, trying to hide what Louis can tell is a smile. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing I...” Harry pauses for dramatic effect and Louis really isn’t up for Harry’s perky outlook on life this early in the morning. “...bought you some tea!” Louis’ eyes widen and he almost jumps out of his seat. He quickly retracts, though, and sits back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Where is it then?” He asks cooly. Harry smirks at him.

“Ah ah ah. Not so fast. You have to smile for me, first.” Harry says. He’s biting his bottom lip, and his dimples are practically covering his whole face. His eyes are bright and green and glossy and Louis’ eyes somehow lead him to Harry’s bushy eyebrows that look like they need a good trim. 

“And if I don’t smile?” Louis questions, even though he’d do just about anything right now for a cup of tea.

“Are you willing to find out?” Harry tones, squinting his eyes and looking like he’s just woken up and someone turned on the lights. Louis huffs out a sigh, and flashes his unbrushed teeth into Harry’s direction, crossing his eyes and sticking out his tongue a second later. Harry bursts out laughing, and then reaches down and picks up a to go cup.

Louis grabs it greedily and is about to drink it before he remembers.

“What kind of tea?” He checks.

“Yorkshire, of course. One sugar, no milk. Just a dab of honey because it’s a bit chilly out.” Louis sniffs the mouth of the lid and then takes a drink, and tries not to moan because it’s still hot.

“You. Are. Amazing,” Louis says, once his tea is gone and they’re almost halfway to school. Harry grins at the road and grips the steering wheel tighter. 

“You’re amazing,” Harry replies. Louis rolls his eyes fondly and starts to dig around in Harry’s glove compartment. “Whatcha looking for?” Harry asks.

“D’you have like, mints or gum?” Louis asks, pulling out a sock from inside the owners manual for the car. Harry’s eyes light up when he sees it.

“Hey! That’s my footy sock! Been looking for that for ages!” Harry exclaims, reaching over and grabbing it out of Louis’ hand, stuffing it into his coat pocket. Louis doesn’t mention that it had a half eaten jolly rancher stuck to it. “I have some altoids in the side of the door right there,” Harry adds after a minute. “Might be a few left in there.” Louis looks down and sees a silver tin and it makes a jingling noise when he picks it up. He’s excited for all of two seconds before he opens it and sees a bunch of wall tacs. 

“Err.. Harry? These are tacs..” Louis says, holding one up close to Harry’s face. Harry nods his head.

“Indeed they are, Louis.” Harry agrees, saying nothing more. Louis looks at the tacs for another minute before putting them away and spending the rest of the ride in silence.

-

They’re late to first period. 

Louis only partly blames Harry, even though it’s most definitely Louis’ fault, a hundred percent. Mr. Smith gives them a friendly glare and a little finger point before they take their seats and get out their homework. 

“How come you woke up so late?” Harry asks a few minutes later as Mr. Smith is walking around the room, checking to see who did and didn’t do their homework. 

“I dunno,” Louis says, drawing little faces around the sides of his paper. “I think I forgot to set my alarm, because I don’t even remember hearing it go off. And my mum worked until 5 this morning so she wasn’t up to make sure I was awake.” Harry nods. 

“That’s weird, because right after I got home, I went upstairs and passed out. Slept for 10 hours. And this morning I passed that coffee shop by the car wash, and they’re having this grand reopening, so all their 20 ounce drinks were 2.00 dollars. Couldn’t pass it up.” Louis smiles and leans his head onto Harry’s shoulder, suddenly really tired. 

“I’m so glad you did,” Louis says, tucking himself closer into Harry’s side. “Probably would be in a much worse mood if you hadn’t.” Harry chuckles and rests his head on top of Louis.

“Something wrong?” Harry questions, sounding entirely genuine. Louis’ about to answer, but then Mr. Smith walks by, smiling at them and stamping their homework. Louis sits up, because even though it’s no secret him and Harry are dating, it’s still a little weird for a 60 year old man to know directly. At least Mr. Smith has given up on trying to get Harry to sit in his assigned seat. 

“Nothing, really.” Louis says, once Mr. Smith is a safe distance away. “Just, like, Fizz being weird about this boy at school.” 

“Oooooh,” Harry says. “Anything juicy?” Louis smiles and shakes his head.

“Nah, nothing like that. He’s pretty much just been like, calling her names and making her feel like shit, basically. And I want to make her feel better about it, but you know pre-teen girls. Believe every sodding thing a person tells them.” Louis sees Harry tense up next to him.

“What does he say?” Harry asks, fiddling with his fingers. Louis shakes his head, sitting up straight and mindlessly fixing his fringe.

“Just calling her fat and ugly and all that. I told her it wasn’t true, because obviously it is, but she started bawling her eyes out and it killed me that I couldn’t do anything. Lottie was a mess too, just watching it.” Harry reaches over and grabs Louis’ hand, trying to comfort him. Louis wants to pull away, but he knows Harry’s only trying to help. 

“And I thought I had it bad.” Louis mumbled, rubbing a thumb under his eye and then wiping his nose with the sleeve of his shirt. All Harry does is squeeze his hand tighter. 

“That kid doesn’t know that he’s messing with the girl whose brother is dating captain of the football team. I’ll give ‘im a stern talking to, if you want.” Harry says, looking smug. Louis rolls his eyes.

“He’s twelve, Harry. You could be arrested.” Louis warns. Harry scoffs and scoots his chair closer to Louis. 

“People are dicks.” Harry sighs. Louis nods his head in agreement, and throughout the rest of the class their hands stay linked together under the table. 

-

The rest of Louis’ day, unsurprisingly is total shit. He hates to be sappy, but the only good part of his day is when he’s with Harry- only because Harry isn’t shy or awkward around him and he’s like, a proper gentleman- always listening to Louis rant about his day and bad mouth people at their school.

And like, Harry is just so nice to everyone. He’s one of those people who only sees the good things in the world, and is so painfully clueless about the things going around in school. It’s sometimes endearing, how he thinks a ‘stern talking to’ will do anything but give people a reason to make fun of you. 

But then it’s so frustrating, because Louis’ not going to just run up to Harry like a little kid, and cry to him about some mean ‘ol bully who’s shoving him into lockers and pushing him down in the locker room. It’s bad enough that Harry’s dragging himself down to Louis’ level for some fake relationship that’s done fuck all to help Louis in his current bullying situation. He’s not going to give Harry another reason to feel sorry for him.

The only really bad part of the day is P.E., when Zayn isn’t there. When they’re changing out of their gym clothes and back into their school outfit, Nathan always tries to start something with Louis. Whether it be hiding his backpack or making crude gestures at him. Today was the worst of them all, though.

P.E. had just gotten over with, and Louis was thankfully not sweaty at all. Zayn hadn’t show up either, because of course he didn’t. Louis had honestly just been looking forward to seeing Harry and going home to have a nice nap because he never fully recovered from his drowsiness this morning. 

Now that he looks back on it, he can’t believe he hadn’t noticed how fast everyone cleared out of the locker room. He was only focused on getting redressed, and getting out of there. Which is why he didn’t see Nathan standing there until he was fully dressed, and about to make his way out of the lockeroom.

“Where you going, Tommo?” Nate asked, leaning up against a locker and eyeballing Louis carefully. Louis didn’t make any eye contact, just looked past him and into a mirror hanging beside the exit door. When Louis didn’t respond, Nathan got up into his face and made Louis flinch slightly. 

“Leave me alone, Nate. Or else-”

“Or else what? Your boyfriend gonna do something about it? Unless there’s another Harry Styles at this school that I’m not aware of, I’m pretty sure your boyfriend isn’t going to do shit to me. He couldn’t hurt fly.” Louis swallowed uncomfortably and tried to break away from Nathan. “Fuck off, Tomlinson. I don’t know what you and Styles are playing at right now, but I don’t like it. And if I get benched because of this, I’m coming straight for you, got it?” Before Louis could reply, he was being shoved into the ground. 

He landed on his knee painfully, but tried not to let it show too much. His backpack offered a tiny bit of support to his fall, but either way there would be a large bruise there in a few days. He tried to curl into himself as Nathan began kicking him- going for his arm and then his legs. 

It wasn’t the worst he’d ever gotten, and at least Nathan had hurt him somewhere that Harry wouldn’t be able to see. 

Louis was pretty sure he lost consciousness somewhere in the middle of all the kicking and spitting, because the next thing he knew, the locker room was empty aside from him, and there was minimal blood coming from his nose. 

He tried to stand up, but his skin felt tight around his body and his head was absolutely throbbing with pain. As the minutes passed, he knew that if he didn’t get up soon, Harry would come looking for him and the locker room was the last place Louis wanted Harry to be. 

So, he got up and went into the bathroom cubicle to grab a piece of tissue, and he got it damp before he cleaned up the blood coming from his nose. Besides his hair being slightly askewed and his eyes being glossy with threatening tears, Louis looked rather presentable. He brushed off his clothes and started walking to the car, thinking of an excuse for why he took so long. 

When he got to the student parking lot, he saw Harry standing next to his car, biting his lip and furrowing his brow as he scrolled through his phone. Louis felt completely guilty for making Harry wait for him, so when he got up to the curly boy, he didn’t give Harry a chance to say anything before he was walking up to him and burrowing his head into Harry’s neck, wrapping his arms under Harry’s arms and breathing in the sweet, warm, comforting smell of Harry.

Thankfully, Harry didn’t ask any questions. Just wrapped his arms around Louis’ shoulders and pressed a kiss to Louis’ head. Louis didn’t let go for a while, just enjoying the slight pain he got from Harry squeezing him too hard. 

-

Harry couldn't hang out after school, because there’s a game on Friday and they have practice and like, Louis’ okay with that even though all he could think about all day was going home and snuggling up with Harry on his bed and taking a nice long nap. 

It’s probably weird that him and Harry are being so touchy with each other, especially since this is only their third day of actually being a ‘couple’. It just all feels so right, though. Like the way their hands clasp together perfectly, and the way Harry always giggles at Louis’ dumb jokes and how Louis only ever looks forward to seeing Harry everyday. 

It made Louis a bit discouraged when he found out Harry had yet to his mum about them ‘dating’. Even if they weren’t technically dating, it still felt like a huge stab to his ego because that means Harry isn’t planning on introducing his mum to Louis.

Louis had told his mum almost the second that he got home on Friday. He wasn’t even sure if it was a good idea to tell her that it wasn’t real, but she knows literally everything about his life, other than Greg. It felt like a dirty lie to keep it from her. Besides, he needed someone to vent to- before he knew how amazing it felt talking to Harry. 

“Louis!” Louis opens his eyes abruptly and hops out of bed, running upstairs to where Fizz is calling his name. She’s standing in the kitchen, looking smug with herself. Louis’ about to ask what’s going on, but then his mum comes storming in the kitchen- her hair in a messy bun and face looking absolutely knackered. 

“Mum what’s-”

“Felicite here purposely hit some boy in the face with a football at recess.” His mum states. “She’s been sent home early and per request of the boy’s parents, she has detention during school for the rest of the week.” Louis glances over to Fizz and quirks his eyebrow. Her response is a smile and a shrug of her shoulders.

-

The next morning in Harry’s car, after Louis’ successfully explained to Harry what a badass his sister is, Harry gets a little awkward.

“So, Lou. You know how we have a game on Friday?” Harry asks, moving his hands around the wheel. Louis nods his head.

“Yup.” Louis replies, popping the ‘p’.

“Well. I was just wondering if you planned on going? Obviously you don’t have to go if you don’t want to, like I'm not expecting you to or anything I just think it would be.. fun? And you can sit with Zayn and Liam and Niall so you won’t be alone and it’s just more... believable that we’re dating if like. You go. To the game.” Harry rushes, closing his mouth tightly after and not saying anything. 

Louis hadn’t even thought about the game. He knew it was coming, obviously, he just didn’t think about the fact that he had to go. And obviously he was going to. 

“Yeah, 'course I’ll go, Haz.” Louis smiled. Harry seemed to relax at that, loosening his grip on the wheel.

“Cool. If you don’t mind, you could wear my away jersey? Might be a bit big on you, but I think it’d look cute.” Harry mumbles the last part and Louis blushes furiously, biting his lip to try and hide his grin.

“Ye-Yeah,” Louis clears his throat. “Yeah, I could do that. Wear it, I mean. That'd be okay.” Louis feels like some sort of schoolgirl, honestly. He’s blushing and giggling because Harry called him cute. What kind of compliment is that, anyways? Louis is not a five year old. He’s so much more than just cute. 

“Awesome. Cool. I’ll just wash it tonight and bring it to school tomorrow.” Louis can see a bit of a blush on Harry’s cheeks, but he doesn’t mention anything about it, considering he’s no better off. 

“Okay. Sounds good.” Louis pulls out his phone to try to lighten the situation and make it seem like it’s not a big deal. When they pull up to the school, Harry holds Louis hand like he always does, and when they walk past Nathan, Louis scoots closer into Harry’s side and starts talking about his art project that he’s working on. 

Louis slips up his words and isn’t even listening to himself talk, but Harry’s indulging him in it, anyways. Nodding his head and asking questions and trying to lead them through the swarm of students surrounding them. 

Ed stops them a few doors before their first period and invites them to some party on Saturday, which Louis tries to decline to, but Harry speaks up before Louis could, and tells Ed they would be there.

“If we show up to a party together, Lou,” Harry says once they sat down in their first period. “People will start to believe that we’re dating.”

“It’s not like people are constantly watching our every moves though, Harry.” Louis explains. “They aren’t waiting for us to slip up. I don’t think anyone at this school is complex enough to actually think we’re in a fake relationship.” Harry rolls his eyes and leans over closer to Louis.

“Yeah, but I have every intention of going to that party, and it might seem a bit weird if I go without you, right?” It wasn’t as though Louis didn’t want to go to the party, because he did. It’s just that he hasn’t been to a party in months- since Greg was last in town. Louis had convinced himself that everyone at school hated him, so he really had no business going to any parties. 

Except this particular party is at Ed’s house, and if Louis were to name one person at this school who didn’t treat him like shit or ignore him for the four months before Harry came along, it would be Ed. They had gym together before Ed switched out into a different class and left Louis to run the tracks alone and defend himself in some pretty brutal dodgeball games. 

“Just don’t ditch me, okay?” Louis says, already getting upset at the thought of Harry bringing him to a party and then leaving him for his much cooler friends.

“I promise, Lou. The whole point of going is so people can see us together, remember?” 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Louis mutters, waving his hand in the air carelessly. “Just saying.”

-

They made plans for Louis to ride to the football game with Zayn, Perrie, Liam and Niall, because Harry was riding on the school bus to the stadium with the rest of the footie players three hours before the game started so they could warm up and do all their pep talks. 

Louis doesn’t mind, because him and Zayn had really hit it off on Tuesday, and Niall is always fun. It’s just a little awkward when the four of them get to Louis’ house, because Louis gets into the car dressed in Harry’s four sizes too big football jersey that he’s almost drowning in. 

“Aww!” Perrie coos, turning around from where she’s sat in the drivers seat. She grins widely at him. “You look so adorbs, Lou!” Louis tries not to blush under the gaze of the four of them staring at him, but it’s not really working. 

“Er, thanks. S’a little big, though...” He mumbled, tugging on the extra fabric self consciously. 

“I think that’s the point, mate.” Niall chimes in, leaning over in the back seat and wrapping his arm around Louis’ shoulder. “Harry’ll have a fit, I reckon.” Louis just smiles at Niall, not trying to understand what that even means and instead settling for looking out the window as they drive to the stadium.

It’s pretty dark out, considering it’s half seven, and Perrie keeps changing the radio stations back and forth from one pop song to another. Louis hasn’t listened to pop music ever since Harry started to pick him up for school. Harry listens to alternative music, which is okay, but Louis doesn't exactly think they’re in the stage of their relationship where he can have control over Harry’s radio. 

When they get to the stadium, there are crowds of teenagers standing along the football field, eating popcorn and hamburgers and smoking cigarettes. Louis feels entirely lame, wearing this giant football jersey, feeling like some silly boy with a dumb crush on the football captain, hoping that somehow wearing his jersey will make him fall in love with him. 

Perrie loops her arm through Louis’, though, and smiles at him.

“You look great, Louis, honestly. Harry is actually pretty protective over his jersey’s. It’s quite the honor, I’d say.” Louis blushes, but smiles at Perrie and nods his head.

“Yeah, s’just kind of cold out. Should have brought a jacket or something.” Perrie waves him off.

“Nonsense. Once the game starts and you get to cheering for your man, you’ll warm right up, I promise.” She winks at him, and Louis does an awkward little laugh before Perrie gets pulled away by Jessy, and they run to the bathroom while holding each others hands. 

Louis turns around to look for Liam and Zayn or Niall, and he’s surprised to see that Niall is directly behind him, eating a hotdog with mustard and ketchup on it, while holding two more in his other hand. 

“Oh,” Louis says, completely put off seeing condiments spread out all over Niall’s face. 

“Alright, mate?” Niall asks through a bite. He spits out part of his hotdog, and Louis does his best to hide his grimace. He doesn’t do a very good job. 

“Yeah, m’good. Uh, where do we sit?” Louis asks. Niall shrugs his shoulders and points in the general direction of the bleachers.

“Somewhere over there.” Louis nods his head, and starts to head over, not waiting for Niall to continue talking. 

He finds that Liam is already sitting down with a bag of kettle corn and is talking to one of the cheerleaders. He breaks out of the conversation when he sees Louis.

“Louis! Hi, bud. Just sit right here, yeah? Game’s gonna start soon.” Louis smiles at him appreciatively and takes a seat, tucking his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants. Liam doesn’t try to make small talk with him, which Louis appreciated immensely. He’s looking out on the field for Harry, when Zayn, Perrie and Niall come to sit down with them. 

“Haz is looking for you, Lou,” Zayn says, sitting down and resting his hand between both of Perrie’s knees. “Over there on the other side of the field.” He points to the visitor's side of the field, and Louis looks to see a tall figure standing there stretching, wearing the exact same jersey, except in blue. 

“What do I do?” Louis asks dumbly. Perrie rolls her eyes.

“Go over there and see him, obviously! C’mon, Lou.” She sighs, pushing at his back to get him to stand up. Louis does, and when he’s standing, he feels like the whole group of students sat behind him are staring at him, watching his every move. He tries his best not to do anything embarrassing, just walks and gets to Harry as fast as possible. 

“Hey,” Louis breathes, once he gets close enough to Harry. Harry looks up at him and smiles widely, meeting Louis halfway and hugging him tightly. 

“Wow, you look... really good,” Harry says, once he pulls away from the hug and has a proper look at Louis. “You should be lucky I’m letting you wear it,” Harry jokes. “You can safely say you’re the only other person who’s ever worn one of my jerseys.” Louis blushes and smiles.

“It’s an honor, really.” He says, trying to lighten the intensity of what Harry’s statement just implied. Harry looks at Louis and smiles at him from a while, only breaking out of his gaze when he seems to catch himself.

“Er, right. Well I was just thinking maybe like. A good luck kiss before the game? We are a couple and all...” Harry mumbles, looking down at his feet and twisting his fingers together. Louis swallows loudly and scratches his neck. 

“Yeah, I guess that would make sense...” He says nervously. Him and Harry have only ever kissed once or twice, and both times they were quick pecks on the mouth, nothing too showy, just something to keep everyone at bay. But Louis can tell by the way Harry keeps licking his lips that this is going to be more than a quick peck. “Well, get on with it, then.” Louis demands, only half joking. He doesn’t want this to look awkward or too planned, because even though he can’t see them, he can feel the entire student body watching him and Harry standing there. 

Harry laughs nervously, but puts one of his hands on Louis’ cheek, and then another on Louis’ waist, and leans in. 

It starts out as a few quick pecks, but then leads into Harry gripping Louis’ face with both of his hands and not so gently sticking his tongue into Louis’ mouth. It’s quite sloppy, and Louis has never been a fan of PDA, but right now he can’t quite remember why that was.

He pulls away after a minute, keeping his face close to Harry’s and breathing heavily.

“O-okay. I think that’s enough luck,” Louis says. Harry shakes his head, moving so his lips are barely hovering over Louis'.

“No, just- just a little more. I think I’ll need it...” Before Louis can reply with how completely lame and cliche that was of Harry to say, Harry captures his lips and moves his other hand down to Louis’ waist. There’s no tongue involved this time, and they only pull away when a whistle blows and the footy coach is yelling across the field.

“Oi, Styles! What is this! Makeout city? Get your arse over here!” Harry laughs against Louis’ lips, but steps back anyways, and places a kiss on Louis’ forehead. 

“Guess I better go then...” Harry says, pointing his thumb over his shoulder to where his teammates are stretching. Louis nods his head.

“Yeah, I guess you better...” Louis agrees. But they both stand there for a minute, smiling at each other stupidly and not saying anything. Eventually, the coach grows restless and blows his whistle again. Harry sighs and kisses Louis’ cheek before running over to his team.

“Good luck!” Louis yells.

-

When Louis gets back to his seat, he feels completely embarrassed about that whole show him and Harry just put on. He can feel everyone staring at him, and Zayn has this sort of shit eating grin look on his face.

“I didn’t know you and Harry were like that." He says, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Perrie elbows Zayn in the shoulder and rolls her eyes, moving down a row and squeezing herself between Niall and Louis.

“Don’t listen to him, Lou. He’s being a twat.” She says, rubbing his shoulders. “You and Harry are just the cutest couple, Louis, honestly. I’ve known Harry for years and I’ve never seen his face light up like it does when he’s with you.” Niall looks over Perrie’s shoulder and nods his head eagerly. 

“I’ve never seen him so in love,” Liam says from behind Louis. 

“Oh. We haven’t.. We’re not..” Louis stammers, feeling weird about hearing all of this. How could they think Harry and him were in love? They’ve been ‘dating’ for a week. Zayn makes a noise from behind Louis.

“Oooh. Are you guys not at that stage yet?” Louis gulps and shakes his head.

“I mean... We’ve only been together a week I just... Isn’t that a little soon to be able to tell?” Louis asks, looking around the four of them for confirmation that yes. It is definitely too early to tell if you’re in love with your fake boyfriend.

All of them look down.

“Louis, mate,” Liam says, patting his shoulder comfortingly. “The thing about Harry is that he falls in what he thinks is love. He gives his heart away and it just gets walked all over. He’s been in some shitty relationships with people not even half as deserving of it as you.” Niall peaks his head over Perrie’s shoulder and nods his head solemnly. 

“It’s a damn shame,” Zayn says. “Harry’s such a good guy.” Liam, Perrie and Niall are all nodding their heads, and Louis suddenly feels so weird about this whole thing. Even though it’s all fake and Harry knows that, he can’t help but feel like this is him taking advantage of Harry. 

This relationship isn’t even supposed to go anywhere. It’s not supposed to mean anything. But now that he’s been informed of Harry’s not so successful relationship past, he feels somewhat guilty and very uncomfortable. He’s not even supposed to be hearing this right now.

“Yeah, I um. Yeah. He’s great and all it’s just-”

“Hey,” Zayn says softly. “I hope that didn’t scare you off. No pressure, if you feel it, you feel it. We didn’t mean to freak you out or anything. We just think you’re good for him, is all.” Louis nods his head and wipes his sweaty hands on his sweatpants. 

“Right, right. Definitely not scared off, just-” Thankfully, the sounds of an announcer come on, yelling the names of the schools and the starting players for each team, and everyone seems to break out of the little heart to heart they were just having, and into a mess of screaming and cheering. 

A girl a few rows up accidently kicks down her soda, there’s glitter being thrown in the air, and Niall is trying to start The Wave. Louis looks onto the field just in time to catch Harry’s gaze, and he gives a small smile, mouthing ‘good luck’ to Harry.

Harry grins and waves to Louis before turning around and running into center field with the rest of the team. Louis cheers as loud as he can for Harry through the whole game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments make my world go round ♡ ♡
> 
> Tumblr: hlstyles


	4. Chapter 4

The first thing Louis realizes when he wakes up in the morning, is that he’s still wearing Harry’s jersey. The second is that it’s far too early on a Saturday to be awake. He’s about to turn and get cuddled back into his bed, when he sees that his mum is standing at his door. 

“Mum,” He croaks, sitting up straight and squinting his eyes are her. “What’s up?” He rubs at his eyes and scratches at his arms, noticing that there’s still a bit of blue paint on his arms from when the cheerleaders came up into the bleachers during halftime last night and painted everyone’s arms blue.

“Nothing, love. Just thought you’d want some tea. I didn’t hear you come in until quite late last night..” Her voice is soft, and not accusatory in any way. 

“Yeah, sorry. Game went into overtime.” Louis reaches his arm out in gesture for his mum to bring him the tea, and she smiles before closing the door behind herself and sitting down next to Louis on his bed. 

“And they won, I take it?” She asks, handing over the tea. Louis takes a long sip and wipes off his mouth on the back of his hand before responding.

“Yeah! Was sick. 3 to 4 at the end. Everyone was expecting Harry to make the winning goal, since that’s how all their plays go, but one of the players got a hurt ankle in the last ten minutes of the game and this second year student went in for him, and he made the winning goal. The team carried him on their shoulders as they walked off. His face was brilliant.” Louis stops to take another sip, and notices that his mum has a soft smile on her face.

“I’m glad you had fun. I know how the last game went for you-” Louis interrupts her with a sigh and leans his head on her shoulder.

“I don’t even want to think about it, mum. That was so embarrassing. Getting picked on like that in front of Harry. He probably just feels sorry for me.” Jay makes a noise and hits Louis lightly on his thigh.

“Don’t say that, Boo. I’m sure Harry isn’t spending his time going over the scene in his head. And from what I saw at dinner, he most definitely doesn’t feel sorry for you.” Louis sits up a bit to drink the rest of his tea, and then he leans over to set it down on his night stand. “But you two have been spending an awful lot of time together….” His mum hints, giving him a cheeky smile. Louis knows she’s just teasing, but it makes him blush anyways.

“Mum, you know we’re just friends. That’s all.” Louis says. Jay shrugs her shoulders at him, looking around Louis’ room in feign innocence. 

“I’m just saying, no completely straight footy captain would pretend to be dating another boy if he thought they were ‘Just Friends’...” Louis groans and rubs his hands through his hair and down his face, peeking his eyes between his fingers to look at his mum. 

“Okay, well no one said he was completely straight, and you don’t know Harry. That is totally something he would do. He would probably risk wrecking his car just to avoid hitting a squirrel. And just because he’s football captain doesn’t mean he’s some dick, okay?” Louis snaps, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Wow, bite my head off, then. Sorry I said anything. Just my two cents.” Jay defends, smiling at Louis when he seems to calm down a bit. “I love you, Lou. Just be careful, okay? The last thing I want is to see you getting hurt.” Louis rolls his eyes but gives his mum a kiss anyways. 

“Oh, there’s this party tonight… At Ed’s house? I think I told you about him once or twice… But anyways. He invited me and Harry to go, so. I’ll be doing that tonight.” Louis says awkwardly, after his mum has stood up from his bed. 

“Okay, babes.” She says. “Just be safe.” She winks at him, and then turns around to walk away, closing the door behind herself. Louis blushes and then turns back into his bed and buries his face into his pillow. 

-

Louis spends most of his day in bed, only getting up so he can say bye to his sister’s as they leave for their dad’s house. Louis feels a little guilty for not spending a whole lot of time with them, but they don’t seem too bothered by it when he tries to apologise. 

After the girls are gone, Louis realises that his mum will be home alone all night, and again, he feels guilty for just leaving her by herself on a Saturday night. 

“Oh, don’t be daft, Lou. I’ll be fine. Go out and have fun with your friends. I’m sure I won’t be too lonely. Besides, I’ll probably be going to bed early tonight, since I have to work so early in the morning.” Jay says after Louis expresses his concern to her. 

Still, Louis spends a few hours in the living room with her, watching episodes of Breaking Bad, and then spends another couple hours in the kitchen with her, sitting on the counter while she makes banana bread. He listens as she talks about Michelle from work and how she always brings three containers of yogurt and eats it all during their half hour lunch break. 

When Louis decides to start getting ready for the party, he begins with a nice hot shower to finish getting the rest of the paint off his arms. For the life of him he can’t decide what to wear, doesn’t know the proper attire for this kind of thing, so he spends almost half an hour pacing his room in his boxers worrying his lip between his teeth and honestly just wanting to throw on a pair of sweatpants.

He settles for a pair of his black skinny jeans, with an oversize denim shirt. He gels his hair up a bit, and slides on a pair of VANS before getting a text from Harry saying he’s on his way. 

-

Harry comes to pick him up a little after 8 pm, and Louis kisses his mum goodbye before running outside to the car. It’s started to rain just a little, which is just what Louis needs after spending almost 45 minutes on his hair.

“Hiii!” Harry greets, once Louis is seated. Louis looks over and swallows loudly, seeing Harry dressed up in a black quarter sleeve shirt with black jeans. His hair is slicked back and a mess of curls. 

“Hey,” Louis breathes, focusing his attention on putting on his seatbelt. “So. You’re gonna stay by my side all night, right?” Louis checks, raising an eyebrow in Harry’s direction. Harry nods his head firmly.

“Yes sir,” He says in mock seriousness. “Wouldn’t leave you for even a second.” Louis smiles and tries to relax a bit. He’s actually very nervous, even though he knows at least Liam and Niall are going to be there, too. 

It takes a little while to get to Ed’s house, only because him and Louis live on different sides of town, and apparently in the same neighborhood as Harry. 

"Why didnt you tell me you lived so close to Ed?" Louis asks once they're parked a little bit down the street from Ed's. "I wouldn't have made you drive all the way to pick me up had I known." Harry shrugs.

"What was I supposed to do? Have you take the bus? Make your mum take you?" Louis shudders at the thought of getting out of his mum's minivan in front of the first high school party he's been to in almost a year. "Besides, it's really not a big deal. I don't mind at all." Harry finishes, taking off his seatbelt and getting out of the car. 

It’s raining just a little outside, and Louis only just realizes that for some odd reason Harry has a flannel tied around his waist. 

Louis clutches onto Harry’s hand tightly as they walk inside and through the string of people in the living room. They start in the kitchen, and weirdly enough, there aren’t that many people there yet. 

Harry grabs both of them a beer, and they both kind of just stand in the middle of the kitchen in awkward silence for a minute before Ed comes barging through the door. 

“Lads!” He says, running up between Louis and Harry and wrapping an arm around each of them. “So glad you’re here!” When Louis looks over, Harry is absolutely beaming, his eyes closed as his left arm wraps around Ed’s waist and his right hand stays linked with Louis’. 

-

It’s just after half 12, and Harry hasn’t seen Louis for a good two hours. 

After Ed left them, Louis and Harry went off to find Niall, and after squeezing himself through the living room and into the same space as Niall, Harry looked back only to see that Louis was gone in the crowd of sweaty teenagers. 

Harry really wasn't all that worried, at least he didn’t think he was. He wasn’t worried a minute ago, but after thinking about all the bad things that could be happening right now, what with the entire school here and Louis roaming around carelessly, he can’t help but get a little antsy. 

He checks the bathroom and the bedrooms, the kitchen and the living room, but he honest to God cannot find Louis anywhere. He’s had a bit to drink, and the house is only a little blurry, but Harry could find Louis in a haystack if he needed to. 

When he walks into the kitchen for what must be the fifth time in the past twenty minutes, he’s about to turn around when he hears that laugh. Louis’ laugh.

He examines the group standing next to the kitchen sink further, and when he really looks, he can see that Louis is in that group, making wide gestures with his right hand, and holding a beer in his left. His cheeks are a little red and he looks quite sweaty, but Harry’s just so glad to see him right now. 

He walks over to the group, and gets behind Louis before leaning down and wrapping his arms around Louis’ waist, and resting his head on Louis’ shoulders. Louis stops talking right when he feels Harry behind him, and he responds by wrapping his arms behind himself and around Harry’s waist. 

Louis seems to forget about the group he was talking to, and the story he was telling, and turns around in Harry’s arms, smiling up at him widely. Harry can barely register the group of teenagers walking away.

“Harry!” Louis yells, flicking part of his fringe out of his eyes. “I missed you! Where’d you go?” He slurs. 

“I went to say hi to Niall and then you just left! You walked away, Louis.” Harry says back, feeling slightly more drunk than he was a second ago. Louis laughs and buries his face into Harry’s neck.

"You're weird." Louis says, rubbing his cold nose into the part of Harry’s shoulder not covered by his shirt.

Harry holds him for a minute, until Louis looks back up at him and sets his beer on the counter.

“Wanna go outside with me?” He asks. Harry nods his head, and lets Louis lead them out onto the porch. 

It stopped raining almost an hour ago, and there’s a bonfire going on at the end of the backyard. Harry can hear the sounds of a guitar being played somewhere over there. 

Louis takes them over to the corner of the porch, and leans back against the railing. Harry stands in front of him for a minute, until he moves next to Louis and leans into him. 

“Are you having fun?” Harry asks, putting his elbow up in the rail and resting his head on his hand. Louis turns to him and nods his head. 

“Lots of fun. I’m glad I came.” Harry smiles and starts to run his hand through Louis’ hair, twirling the ends of it mindlessly. “M’a bit drunk, though,” Louis says, leaning into Harry’s touch. Harry nods his head.

“Me too. Me and Niall played beer pong and I realized a little too late how awful I am at the game.” Harry says. Louis chuckles, closing his eyes slightly. 

“Yeah, y’know that girl who’s Perrie’s friend? Jade?” Harry nods his head. “That girl is something else. I swear she got me to take like, seven shots.” 

“Christ.” Harry says. “When was that?” Louis just shrugs his shoulders, biting the inside of his cheek.

“Right after I lost you. I saw Zayn and Perrie and went to say hi, and then Jade came up and dragged me off.” Harry laughs and unconsciously moves his body closer to Louis’, so their sides are touching. 

Louis continues to explain in great detail, how his night went. How he danced with Anna from his Art class and took shots with Nick who he's never actually talked to before tonight but was fun enough.

When Louis stops talking, the two of them are left standing in somewhat comfortable silence. It's a minute later that Harry sees Louis’ hands twitching at his side, and the only logical thing for him to do is reach down and tangle their hands together. He swings them mindlessly between their bodies until Louis looks up at Harry and smiles, biting on his bottom lip and switching his weight from foot to foot. 

Harry starts to move his head closer and closer to Louis', and he doesn't stop only because Louis is moving his head closer too. He’s not even sure why they're doing it, just knows that he wants to be close to Louis right now. Harry doesn’t even notice how close they’re both getting to each other until all of a sudden, him and Louis are pressing their lips together. 

It’s slow and soft at first, and Louis makes a humming sound against Harry’s lips, wrapping his arms around Harry’s neck and getting up on his tippy toes. Harry moves his hands down to the bottom of Louis’ waist, just above his jeans and leaves them there. 

Once Louis pulls Harry in, closer and firmer, Harry swipes his tongue across Louis’ bottom lip. And then Louis is opening his mouth, letting Harry’s tongue in. Louis tastes like the beer he was just drinking, but also a bit like the chocolate cupcakes Ed had brought out earlier. 

After a minute of Harry’s tongue moving around inside Louis’ mouth, and Louis' hands tangling in Harry’s hair, Harry gets a little restless and pushes Louis back against the railing, pressing their bodies together and moving his hands down to Louis’ bum, just resting them there. 

“Harry,” Louis breathes out against his lips once they pull away for a minute. Louis rests his head against Harry’s and Harry leans down to press kisses all over Louis’ face, down his jaw and over his neck. He moves back to Louis’ mouth after another minute, and only pulls away when he hears the back door open.

“Oi!” Niall yells. “Get a room, you two!” When Harry turns to look, Niall’s got two beers in his hand and a sandwich in the other, white bread stuck in the front of his braces. With the mood successfully ruined, Harry moves away from Louis and adjusts his shirt, clearing his throat and smiling at Niall.

“Hi Niall,” Harry says. “Enjoying yourself, then?” Niall scoffs and starts walking away from them.

“Clearly not as much as you two,” He says as he begins to walk down the stairs and to the bonfire. Harry turns back to Louis and smiles, not really sure what he should be doing right now.

“Will you take me home?” Louis says a minute later. Harry frowns, and checks the time on his phone. 12:32. 

“Actually… Maybe you could spend the night at mine?” Harry asks nervously, hoping that Louis doesn’t get the wrong idea. “I just.. I'm not fit to drive right now. And you said your mum is working early tomorrow and you’re probably gonna have a bit of hangover. No fun going through that alone is it? I’ll make pancakes in the morning, too.” Louis doesn’t look all that convinced, so Harry tries again. “My mum wants to meet you…” Louis’ eyes go wide at that, his eyebrows furrowing a little.

“You-You told your mum? About me?” Harry nods his head. “Does she know.. the truth or?” 

“I just.. told her there was a guy at school I was dating and she didn’t really ask anything about it. Just said that she wants to meet you. I mean, I don’t know. Is it bad if I don’t tell her the truth?” Harry asks. Louis is quiet for a minute, before shrugging his shoulders.

“I mean, if she’s anything like my mum, then no. It’s not a bad thing.” Harry smiles and then holds out his arm for Louis to take. 

“So? You’ll spend the night? We can walk, it's not far away, I promise. Just a couple streets down. My bed may not be as nice as yours but I'm sure it’ll manage.” Harry doesn’t mean for it to come out quite so suggestively, but Louis just smiles and hooks his arm through Harry’s, letting him lead him inside and through the crowd of students still gathered throughout the house. Harry wasn’t exaggerating when he said the whole school was there.

Even though technically they don't have to, Harry still clasps Louis' hand with his as they make their way to his house. Harry sees Louis shivering after a minute, so he unties his flannel from around his waist and hands it to Louis, who wordlessly takes it and slips it on, already feeling slightly warmer.

The walk to Harry’s house is completely silent between the two of them, Harry not bothering with conversation. He likes it when him and Louis can just hang out and not have to make small talk. When they wanted to talk, it was nice and thoughtful. Their conversations were never forced, and that was all he could really ask for, given their situation. 

When they get to Harry’s house, the place is completely dark, and they try to be as quiet as they can as they walk down the stairs to Harry’s room.

Louis realizes that this is the first time he’s seen Harry’s house, and this is going to be his first time seeing Harry’s room. He wants to savour the moment, but he’s almost too tired and too tipsy to think about it. 

Harry opens the door and gestures for Louis to walk in first. Harry’s room is a little chilly, but smells like oranges and cologne and it’s almost spotless. His walls are a beige color, he has a dresser, a huge walk in closet full of clothes and a laptop sitting on his nightstand next to his bed. 

Harry immediately begins taking off his boots and his socks, sitting on the bed and starting to undo his belt. Louis figures Harry’s going to stop there, since he has company with him in his room, but he doesn’t.

Harry continues on and pulls off his shirt, and then his jeans, sitting on his bed in just his boxers and staring at a wall. Louis swallows uncomfortably. Harry seems to notice Louis’ sudden stillness and looks up at him.

“Sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable? I can sleep with clothes on if you like, I was just thinking it was a bit hot in here.” Harry really does look apologetic, and honestly, Louis really doesn’t mind all that much. 

“No, you’re fine. Just.. Maybe I could borrow some pajamas?” Louis says, looking around Harry’s room. Harry gets up after that, and walks over to his dresser. He pulls out a blue shirt and a pair of plaid bottoms that once Louis puts on, go all the way past his legs and fit largely around his waist. 

Harry smiles and gets into bed, holding the blanket up for Louis. Louis smiles and hops under with him, letting out a sigh of relief once Harry wraps his arm around his waist and molds their bodies together. Harry’s such a cuddle bug and Louis loves it. 

Just as that thought leaves Louis’ mind, Harry leans his head down and presses a long kiss to the back of Louis’ head, nuzzling his nose into Louis’ hair and evening his breath until Louis can hear the soft snores signalling Harry’s just fallen asleep.

He takes a second to calm down, wondering if what just happened actually meant something, or if it was just Harry being… Harry. Before he can come to a conclusion, he falls asleep.

-

The next time he wakes up, it’s just after 5 in the morning. Louis’ head is slightly throbbing and Harry is next to him, laying on his side facing Louis and drooling out of his mouth. It’s almost kind of cute and if he was up to it, he would take a picture. But he’s not really up to it. 

But, the thought of him taking a picture of Harry reminds him that he hasn’t seen his phone in a while, and he searches blindly at the foot of the bed until he find it, freezing cold and blinking with a blue light signaling that he has a missed message. 

Turns out, he has two missed calls from his mum, and a text sent about half an hour ago.

_went you your room to see if you were ok, and you weren’t home. no call. let me know you’re okay. heading to work in an hour. xxxx_

Guilt washes over him, and he immediately feels so dumb for not texting her and telling her he was spending the night at Harry’s. He didn’t want to make an arse of himself and call her to try to explain why he was spending the night at Harry’s, and he honestly just didn’t even think about it.

_sorry mum. slept at harrys he lives right down the block from ed figured it was easier than driving xx_

His mum texts back almost right away.

_ok hon. x_

Louis furrows his brow at his mum’s lack of response, and after five minutes with no follow through text, he locks his phone and gets under the duvet, trying to get as close to Harry as possible without waking him up. It is cold in his room after all. Body heat and that. 

-

“Lou.”

“Hm.”

_“Lou.”_

“ _What.”_ Louis croaks, opening an eye and being greeted with Harry’s face just centimeters from his own. 

“Morning.” Harry says, smiling fondly and breathing his nasty morning breath into Louis’ face. Louis only cringes slightly, because he can imagine that his own breath isn’t much better.

“Time’sit?” He asks, closing his eyes back up and trying to turn out of Harry’s view.

“Half eleven. I want you to meet my mum now.” Harry says conversationally. Louis’ eyes go wide and he stares at Harry like he’s the craziest man he’s ever met.

“I am not,” Louis begins. “Meeting your mum with a hangover. I feel like shit and I probably look even worse.” Harry shakes his head, running his hand through Louis’ hair.

“No you don’t, you look fine. Besides, you just woke up. Mum won’t care.” Louis keeps shaking his head, burrowing himself deeper into the blankets and hoping Harry will give it up.

Of course, he doesn’t, and instead settles for tickling Louis until he’s almost dangling out of the bed and crossing his legs uncomfortably, the fear of peeing a constant thought in his mind.

Fortunately, Harry takes pity on him and lets him up, before walking over to his dresser and pulling of a pair of trackies and a footy shirt. He tosses a slightly smaller shirt and a pair of basketball shorts into Louis’ direction and then walks out of the room, presumably to the bathroom. 

Louis groans and stands up, quickly changing into the clean clothes, even though he’s more than sure Harry only left the room to give him some privacy. Louis walks up to the mirror that’s hanging on Harry’s wall and tries to make his hair look somewhat decent, even though he knows it’s a lost cause.

Harry comes in a minute later and grabs his hand, leading him out of the room and up the stairs into the living room.

“Mum?” Harry calls, walking into the kitchen and waiting there while a lady, his mum, finishes at the sink.

“Harry did you- Oh. Hello.” She says, when she turns around and sees Louis. 

“Mum, this is Louis. Er, my boyfriend?” Louis can see Anne’s eyes light up with recognition and she dries off her hands on a chef towel before walking over to them.

“Oh, of course! Hello, Louis.” She kisses his cheek. “It’s so wonderful to meet you. Harry’s told me so much.” Louis smiles at her and lets go of Harry’s hand self consciously.

“You too. Er, I mean Harry talks about you alot.” Anne grins even wider and takes a small step back.

“I’m sorry, dear. Harry here forgot to mention you’d be coming over this morning and I have a brunch date with some ladies from my work or I would have made something for breakfast. Would you like some tea?” She asks, already walking over to the kettle. 

“Yes please,” Louis says, glancing at Harry who gives him a reassuring smile. “And that’s fine, Anne. Harry promised me some pancakes, anyways.” Anne looks up at them and quirks an eyebrow.

“Oh, did he now?” Harry coughs and rubs under his nose.

“Yeah, mum. I did. So it’s fine if you want to leave now. I think I’ve got it from here.” Anne is just setting two mugs on the counter before Harry’s leading her out of the kitchen.

“But Louis and I haven’t properly met yet, have we?” She says, stepping out of Harry’s pushy arms. “I believe I’ve got some baby pictures to show him, yeah?” She laughs at Harry’s face of horror and presses a kiss to his cheek. “I’m only kidding love. We’ll save it for another time.” She winks at Louis and then grabs her purse off the kitchen counter. “Very lovely to meet you, Louis. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again, soon?” Louis nods his head and waves as Anne makes her way out of the kitchen and out of the house.

“Sorry about her. She’s a bit… hyper in the mornings.” Louis smiles and watches as Harry walks over to the boiling water and pours a bit into each of their mugs. 

“I like your mum. She’s fun.” Louis says a minute later from where he’s sat on the counter, watching Harry stir together the ingredients for pancakes. 

“Yeah, wait until you see her with my sister, Gemma. They’re like a couple of old ladies. Gossiping and what have you.”

“I didn’t know you had a sister,” Louis frowns.

“Yeah, she’s up at uni right now. She’s coming home next month. Spring break, I think.” Louis nods and kicks his legs against the counter, sipping his tea as Harry flips the pancakes. 

“What’s she like?” Louis asks. He’s not sure why he asked it, but seeing Harry’s face light up is a good enough reason.

“She’s great. We’re super close, as well. Always have been, I guess. That’s the reason I was up so early, because she called me.” Louis nods, leaning back against the kitchen wall. He finds it a bit odd that all he does is talk about his little sisters, and Harry never even mentioned that he had one. And then he starts to wonder if Harry’s told his sister about their relationship yet. Or lack thereof. 

It’s just- Louis is always having these mixed emotions about Harry and this thing they’re doing, because one day it feels like Harry actually likes him and wants to be something that’s more than Just Friends or _pals,_ but then other days it feels like Harry doesn’t even want to be seen in public with him. And if that in itself isn’t embarrassing enough, the fact that Harry’s friends have more likely than not told him exactly what they told Louis at the game- that they look at eachother like they're in love, then Harry just... Harry can't know about that, is all.

Everyday Louis feels like Harry’s just going to show up at school and laugh at him and then take out a video camera and show everyone footage of him telling Harry all about Greg and his family and all his personal information that he carries with him everyday. 

And if that’s the case, Harry must be the worlds best actor, because no matter how hard Louis tries, he can’t actually see Harry doing that to him. And that brings him right back to square one, because if Louis didn’t even know Harry had a sister, how would he know what Harry is actually like?

“Louis?” Louis breaks out of his thoughts with a shake and looks up at where Harry is standing in front of him. 

“Yeah?” He asks, ignoring the crack in his voice.

“Er, pancakes are done. I was asking if you wanted orange juice or something?” Louis shakes his head and hops off the counter, looking at the giant stack of pancakes sitting on a plate, waiting to be eaten. 

“No, I’m fine. Looks delish, Haz. Thank you.” Harry grins and there’s a slight blush on his cheeks, if Louis isn’t mistaking. 

“Thanks. They’re my favourite to make.” Louis smiles and then goes to sit at the dining table, waiting for Harry to serve him.

The pancakes are amazing, and Louis lets Harry talk all through breakfast, listening to each of his words incase he hears something important about Harry’s life, like any other siblings or weird talents or _pets_ , and then right as that thought leaves his mind, and black and white cat walks through through the kitchen door.

“Ah, Lou. This is Dusty,” Harry says, leaning down to pick up the cat. Louis smiles and says hello, even though it’s a cat. And only blushes a tiny bit when Harry laughs. 

After they’re done with breakfast, Harry takes Louis down to his room and when Louis tries to change into his old clothes, Harry stops him.

“Honestly, Lou. That shirts too small for me and I don’t even wear those shorts. Your clothes are dirty. Just wear them home and if you want to give them back, you can.” Louis’ about to object, but then Harry gives him a Look, and he relents, folding his dirty clothes into a neat pile and then sitting on Harry’s bed. 

“Well. Should you take me home, then? We’ve still got to walk to Ed’s house.” Harry shrugs, and sits down next to Louis on his bed and rests his head on Louis’ shoulder.

“Do you have to go? Maybe we could watch a movie or.. talk or something?” 

“Oh, uh. I mean, my mum won’t be home for a few hours so if you wanted to just.. hang out that’s… I guess that’s okay..” Louis’ trying to not let his smile show through his words, but Harry’s asking Louis to spend his Sunday with him, and that’s certainly never happened before. 

Harry pulls away and smiles at Louis before standing up, grabbing his laptop off his desk and leaning back against the pillows on his bed. He pats the space next to him, and Louis, a bit too eagerly, climbs up the bed and lays down next to Harry, trying to inconspicuously move his hand as close to Harry’s as possible. 

They watch The Hangover, and Louis’ seen it a million times so it’s not really funny to him anymore, but he might fake a laugh once or twice so he can have an excuse to bury his face into Harry’s shoulder. And if halfway through the movie Louis doesn’t move his head away from Harry, and their hands end up winded together, well. They’re not going to acknowledge it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr: hlstyles


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Endless apologies for taking so long to have this out!

Louis is freaking out. Just a little, but his foot is twitching, his fringe keeps falling into his eyes and the sun is shining uncomfortably on his back.

Louis’ standing on the track field right now, headphones in his ears, ipod strapped to his arm and _who’s_ not standing next to him? Zayn.

Zayn, who Louis distinctly remembers saying he was going to be in gym today. Louis’ guessing that somehow Zayn found out they were running a mile and decided to skip. Which is just what he needs.

Lately, Zayn’s been going to gym everyday- because apparently you actually have to show up in order to get the credit. When Zayn shows up to gym, Louis’ day is wonderfully peaceful- because nobody’s going to give him a hard time when _Zayn_ is standing with him. But when Zayn _doesn’t_ show up, people like Nathan like to get in Louis’ face and push him down and embarrass him.

So yeah, he kind of likes having Zayn around. Not just for that reason, because Zayn is actually really nice company to have, and for some reason, he doesn’t mind hanging out with Louis.

It’s been almost a week since Nathan or any of his friends have tried something on Louis, and he just knows that the second they get the chance, they’re going to go all out and give him a swirly or steal his backpack or something. God, Louis really needs Zayn to be here right now.

When the whistle blows for them to start running, Louis waits a second because he knows if he jogs in front of anyone, they're going to pants him or trip him or something. At the beginning of the Semester when they did this for the first time, somehow, someone managed to tie Louis’ shoe laces together which- didn’t end too pretty. It did get him out of having to run the mile, though.

Louis’ running, pretty well if you ask him, despite the fact that he keeps flinching whenever someone passes him. He’s about to tell himself he’s _just being paranoid_ right when Nathan comes running by and shoves his shoulder and causes Louis to bump into some girl that’s running beside him. Louis has his headphones in, but from the way she’s glaring he guesses she’s just said something very rude to him.

Nonetheless, he keeps his pace and manages to finish the mile in just under 10 minutes which is actually a new personal best- even though he was still one of the last people to finish.

The class gets free time after they’re done running, and Louis manages to spend most of it talking to a girl who he saw at the last football game. She’s nice enough, Louis doesn’t actually know her name, but she has frizzy curly blond hair and ran the mile in under six minutes so he doesn’t particularly worry about it. Apparently she’s part of the jazz band.

Louis tries to sneak into the locker rooms before class is over, but this girl is following him around and saying stupid things like _‘i don’t think we’re supposed to go to the locker rooms yet?’_ and _‘i didn’t hear the whistle blow, did you?’_ When he finally manages to shake her off, he gets to the locker room door only to find out it’s locked, which of course it is.

“Fuck me.” Louis mumbles, looking at the clock to see that there’s not even much time left anyways. He sees one of the gym teachers walking towards the door, so he quickly bends down and unties his shoe before slowly retying it again. The teacher doesn’t even spare him a second glance, just unlocks the door and walks away, back into the gym to blow his whistle.

Louis doesn’t waste another minute before running into the locker room while trying to get his gym shoes off at the same time. He manages to have his jeans on and his shirt slipping over his head when the rest of the boys walk in. Most of them just go straight to the shower. Louis’ never bothered with it- doesn’t like the thought of showering in a cubicle that probably hasn’t been washed in twenty years, and he doesn’t particularly like the idea of getting toe fungus. Harry says he showers in them all the time, and swears that it’s _fine, lou_ but Louis doesn’t really want to take the chance. Besides, he’ll be home in less than an hour so.

When he gets his shoes on, he’s about to slam his locker shut and run out of there, but before he can, Nathan walks in front of him, arms crossed over his chest with a fucking hideous smirk on his face and for a second, Louis actually feels like he might barf.

“What’s the hurry, Lou?” He asks, leaning against a locker and crossing his left foot over his right. “Harry waiting for you?” Louis wants to say no, actually, Harry has football practice after school so he has to walk home, but he keeps his mouth shut. Nathan smiles again.

“Oh, that’s right. He’ll be here soon, won’t he? We have football practice in half an hour, huh?” Louis still doesn’t say anything, just adjusts the strap on his backpack and looks down at his shoes.

Louis just can’t believe that there are all these people in here, and none of them are even doing anything about this. They’re all just laughing and talking loudly, moving on their merry way even though Louis is most likely about to get the shit beat out of him.

“What would happen if Harry walked in here and saw your pretty little face all scratched up?” Nathan asks. Louis cringes and takes a step back, looking around the locker room to find someone that might help him. Instead, most of them are filing out of the locker room, not even sparing Louis a second glance.

Before he knows what’s going on, he’s being shoved back into the lockers and Nathan is grabbing him by the front of his shirt, getting up close and personal to Louis’ face. Louis swallows uncomfortably and tries to look in the coaches’ office for some help but he’s not even in there.

Louis’ about to just let it happen, give in and take whatever Nathan’s going to give him, but then all of a sudden Nathan is being pulled away from Louis and shoved against the locker and before Louis can ever register anything, Nathan is being punched in the face.

When Louis looks up, Zayn is standing there, shaking off his hand with a pained expression on his face. When he sees Louis, he smiles at him.

“That guy is such a dick yeah? You alright?” Louis just stands there, staring at Zayn. “Lou?” Louis clears his throat and fixes his backpack.

“Yeah, I’m fine. We were just- uh messing around..” Zayn gives him a Look before fixing his hair and turning around.

“That didn’t look like messing around to me, Lou. Besides, he used to bully you a lot, right? Before Haz and you started dating?” Louis walks behind Zayn, shrugging his shoulders.

“I mean. A few people used to. He was just the worst, I guess. But like, it never happens anymore.” Louis says. He’s only ever discussed his bullying issues with his mum. Certainly not Harry. The thought of talking about it with Zayn never even crossed his mind before.

“And what just happened in there was….?”

“I _told you._ We were just… messing around. Having a laugh. Like, old times? You know?” Zayn shakes his head and walks outside, pulling out a cigarette. “Where were you during gym anyways?” Louis asks, trying to change the subject.

“Oh, I was in the nurse. Told her I didn’t feel well. She wrote me a pass so I didn’t have to go. But I left my good shirt in there yesterday so I went to get it. Good thing I did, yeah?” Louis sighs and leans against the wall, breathing in Zayn’s puffs of smoke.

“Look. Can you… not mention this to Harry? Please?” He asks. Zayn gives him a weird look, and stubs out his cigarette.

“I thought you and Harry were like, the kind of couple that told each other everything? I mean, you’re practically attached at the hip, yeah?” Louis shakes his head.

“No. Well, yeah, we are I guess, but this was just like. A one time thing. I just don’t want Harry to worry. You know how he gets.” Zayn shrugs his shoulders.

“Hey. It’s none of my business. You and Harry are like the perfect couple, so I won’t say anything about it. I still think you should tell him, though. Nathan is such a prick. Wouldn’t mind seeing him benched.” Louis smiles and pats Zayn shoulder.

“Right. Thanks mate. I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?” Zayn pulls out another cigarette and waves Louis off, muttering a ‘bye mate’ before Louis starts walking home.

 

-

 

The next day, Louis and Harry are sat next to each other in first period, Louis taking notes from the textbook and Harry fiddling around on his phone, his left hand resting on Louis’ thigh. The rest of the kids in the room are talking loudly, and Louis barely hears it when Harry says, 

“Go on a date with me.” Louis almost thinks Harry didn’t even say, but when he looks up, Harry’s staring at him with a nervous look on his face. Still, Louis asks him to repeat himself.

“Pardon?” Harry sets his phone down and smiles at Louis.

“I asked if you would go out on a date with me?” Louis smiles and looks back down at his notes, moving his pencil mindlessly across his paper.

“Where?” He asks, in lieu of an answer.

“It’s a surprise!” Harry says, smiling widely and biting his lip.

“When?”

“This Friday would be good, I think.” Louis pretends to think it over, moving his head from side to side and letting out thoughtful hmms. Harry groans and leans his head against Louis’ shoulder. “C’mon, Lou. It’ll be _fuuuun._ ” Louis doesn’t doubt that it won’t be fun, because honestly, any time he’s with Harry, he’s always having a good time. Harry is just a fun person to be around, always.

He’s just not sure what going on a date with Harry imply, and he doesn’t want to question Harry, incase his motifs really are completely innocent. Still, he’s not sure why Harry would take him on date- especially if people from school aren’t even going to see them out together. Regardless, Louis gives in.

“Okay. You can take me on a date.” He says, smiling when Harry does this weird little hand gesture, followed by him pressing a lingering kiss to Louis’ cheek, incase anyone happens to look in their direction.

 

-

 

That day at lunch, when Louis and Harry join Zayn and Liam at their table, Louis tries to ignore Zayn’s stare, just focuses on peeling an orange for Harry to eat. Niall comes running over to the table with his tray full of food and sits down abruptly.

“Did you guys hear about what happened to Nathan?” Niall asks, making Harry look up and quirk an eyebrow.

“No? What happened? He wasn’t at practice last night.” Louis feigns disinterest in the conversation, focuses solely on peeling the orange, and definitely not looking over at Zayn.

“Apparently someone beat him up yesterday in the locker room after school. He’s got a massive black eye. It’s sick.” Niall says. “Well, I haven’t actually seen it, but that’s what Tom told me. Crazy, yeah? He said that Nathan wouldn’t say who it was.” Louis tries to relax at that, and wordlessly hands the orange over to Harry.

“Thanks, babe.” Harry says, taking off one of the slices and putting it into his mouth. Louis finally glances over to Zayn and surprisingly, Zayn isn’t even looking at him. He’s looking at Harry, which really isn’t all that much better.

“Louis, don’t you and Zayn have gym seventh period? Did you see something?” Liam asks. Louis freezes from where he’s about to take a bite of his sandwich, and looks around to see that all eyes are on him, including Harry’s.

“Err, no mate. I don’t think I did see anything, actually. I got out of there pretty quickly. Zayn skipped, though.” He says, letting out an inaudible sigh of relief when Zayn doesn’t say anything and everyone else goes back to eating.

“Well, I hope he’s good for practice tomorrow. We’re making up these new plays and it’d suck for him not to be here to learn them.” Harry says. Niall nods his head around a mouth full of chips and Louis hooks his foot around Harry’s hoping he’ll stop talking about it. Louis’ still not even sure if Zayn’s going to keep his mouth shut about it, and if Harry found out Zayn’s the one who punched Nathan, it’s going to look really bad for the both of them.

Thankfully Liam interrupts the conversation to ask Harry about their Spanish homework, and Zayn gets up to go get a soda from the machine.

 

“Oh, I’ll go with you.” Louis says, disentangling himself from Harry and running to catch up with him. Louis doesn’t say anything until they get to the vending machine. “Look, Zayn, I-”

“Louis. I told you. Whatever happened in that locker room before I got there, is between you and Nathan. And whatever you choose to tell Harry, is none of my business. I’m not worried about people knowing I punched Nathan or whatever. _He’s_ your problem. I don’t know _why_ it is you’re not telling Harry, like I said, none of my business. But I’m not going to tell anyone, okay? Stop worrying about it.” Zayn opens his coke and takes a sip, staring at Louis.

“I just- Harry worries a lot, okay? He’d blame himself if he found out, and now that I’ve already gone and lied about it, there’s nothing that I can do, yeah? I just… I don’t know. Thanks? For not telling him. I really do appreciate it.” Zayn smiles at him and pats his shoulder.

“No problem, mate. I really do think you and Harry are a good couple. Really, I’ve never seen him this happy.” Louis smiles and scratches his head.

“Yeah. He’s the best.”

 

-

 

Later that week on Wednesday, Louis’ halfway to his fifth period when he hears someone call his name.

“Louis!” He turns around and sees Liam jogging towards him, smile on his face and he stops walking to let Liam catch up with him. “Hey, mate. Are you by any chance going to Farley’s AP Lit right now?” He asks.

“In fact I am, Liam.” He responds, just now noticing the slips of white paper in his hand. “Where were you at lunch?” He asks.

“Oh, I was in the counselor's office getting my schedule changed. I have AP with you now.” He says, handing over his schedule to Louis. 

 

“Christ, Liam. AP chemistry, AP world history, advanced calculus? Are you insane?” Liam laughs and shrugs his shoulders. They walk into the class, and Louis takes his seat as Liam walks up to the teacher to get the assigned reading book.

“I thought you couldn’t switch into year long classes after first semester?” Louis asks once Liam sits down next to him.

“Well, normally you can’t. But I wrote my classes in as academic misplacements- because I have all A’s, so I just had to get all the teachers to sign a slip of paper that said I could switch out of their class and into the others.”

“What made you decide to switch out, then?” Louis asks, beginning to work on the board assignment.

“Well, you know how I dated Danielle, yeah?” Louis nods his head. “So, she decided that she wanted her last year of school to be… easy, because she had dance to worry about, so I took all the same classes as her just so we could be together. But then she got a scholarship to this school in London and broke it off with me.”

“That’s rough, mate. Sorry.” Louis says. Liam just brushes him off, pulling out a pencil and a notebook.

“I’m not too worried about it. I mean, right after it happened I was a mess, but. I’m over it now.”

“How did you two get together, anyways? I know Harry must have told me at some point, but I don’t remember?”

“Well, it was Harry who set us up, I guess. I moved here halfway through freshman year, and I had almost all my classes with Harry and I told him I thought Dani was cute and the next thing I knew, I had her number and we were talking and then. We just got together.”

“And why is that you moved here?” Louis asks. He’s never really had a proper chat with Liam, didn’t even really know who he was until this year.

“Oh, I had a bit of a bullying issue at my last school. Nothing bad,” Liam rushes. “Just. The boys liked to give me rough time, push me around, call me pretty boy. My sister told me I should like, tell someone about it, but I just decided to switch schools instead. And I’m glad I did, too. I never would have met Harry otherwise.” Liam says. “I know that sounds a little weird, yeah? I just mean that Harry was a real pal. Like he invited me to sit with him on my first day and introduced me to a lot of people. He really is such a great guy.” Louis smiles at that, thinking of last week when Harry was over at his house and he carried in all the groceries Louis’ mum had bought for the week.

“He’s great, isn’t he?” Louis says, trying not to blush too much. Liam smiles at him.

“Yeah. How did you two get together, anyways? All you said was his charm was irresistible or something, yeah?” Louis thinks back to that time almost a month ago when he ate lunch with them for the first time and he tried to embarrass Harry in front of his friends, but ultimately ended up failing.

“Oh, he just sat next to me in chemistry and we started texting and he asked me to be his boyfriend after a few weeks. We kind of kept it quiet for a little while, just because I thought people might think it was weird or something. But then, the football game happened and. That was that.” Liam nods his head, looking around the room and pulling out his phone.

“What are you doing on Friday?” He asks, tapping away on his phone.

“Oh, me and Harry have a date that night.” Louis says, trying to be nonchalant. It just sounds so weird to hear himself say that.

“Oh yeah? First date innit?” Liam says, smiling widely. “Where’s he taking you?”

“Yeah, I’m not sure. He said it was surprise.” Liam keeps tapping away on his phone, for a minute Louis thinks he isn’t even listening to him.

“Typical Haz, honestly. He’s always doing romantic stuff like that.” Louis just nods his head, letting Liam do whatever it is he’s doing on his phone and letting Mrs. Farley continue her lecture about _The Awakening._

It a long forty minutes after that.

 

-

 

After school when Louis’ walking to Harry’s car, it’s absolutely pouring down rain and he’s almost soaked head to toe when he sits down in the passengers seat. Harry’s got the heat on high and some sort of indie music playing lightly in the background. Unsurprisingly, Harry is texting someone on his phone, and he doesn’t even greet Louis until a few minutes later.

“Hey, sorry. My sister is being weird,” Harry says, turning on the windshield wipers and putting the car in reverse. “She’s coming down in a few weeks for spring break and my mum doesn’t know, so she’s trying to plan this whole surprise thing. I don’t know. How was your day?” He asks, smiling at Louis and reaching over to rub his thigh. “Quite the rain out there, yeah?”

“Yeah. It was fine. Liam got switched into my fifth period.” Louis says.

“Oh yeah? What’s that, AP lit?” Louis nods his head, trying not to freak out over the fact that Harry has his whole schedule memorized.

“Yeah. We talked about Danielle and stuff. He told me he used to be bullied before he moved here?” Harry tenses up after Louis says that, gripping the steering wheel tighter and keeping his eyes on the road.

“Yeah. When he told me that’s why he moved here I just… the whole thing just makes me really mad. Liam is the nicest guy I’ve ever met. I mean, if I had to choose one person to call in a life or death situation, it’d probably be Liam. Or Zayn and Niall. All three of them are really the only people I consider to be my friends.” Louis nods his head at that, trying not to be too offended that even now Harry doesn’t consider them to be friends. “Well, and you, too, right? We’re friends, yeah?” Harry adds on, smiling and gripping Louis’ hand with his own.

Louis tries not to blush, but it feels like Harry is always reading his mind- always seems to know exactly what he’s thinking.

“Yeah, we’re friends.” Louis says, squeezing Harry’s hand before letting it go.

 

-

 

On Friday, football practice gets cancelled due to the obscene amount of rain, which is good because now Louis can get a ride from Harry instead of having to walk home or wait for his mum to come pick him up.

Harry hasn’t mentioned their date once this week since he asked the first time, and Louis’ pretty sure he just made the whole thing up until Harry drops him off at his house after school.

“So, I’ll come pick you up at around 7?” Louis nods his head and puts up his hoodie.

“Just text me when you’re on your way.” Louis says, opening the door and climbing out of Harry’s car before quickly running into his house. He doesn’t know how long this rain is supposed to last, but knowing Harry, he probably has some weird field picnic under the stars planned, which Louis wouldn’t be opposed to, but the rain is a bit worrisome. Harry didn’t seem phased by it, so Louis won’t be either.

He goes inside and cleans up a little, sweeps the floor and unloads the dishwasher before going up to the bathroom and taking a nice hot shower. It’s only 3:50 by the time he gets out, so he pulls on a pair of sweatpants and starts working on his assigned reading for the weekend.

His mum isn’t supposed to be home until later, and his sisters aren’t going to be here until Monday night. There’s still two and half hours until Harry comes to pick him up, so Louis decides to take a small nap, just because he doesn’t know how long his date with Harry is going to be and he doesn’t want to be tired during the whole thing.

So, he sleeps for an hour and a half, and spends the last hour getting ready, pulling on a pair of black pants, a white shirt and a flannel under his denim coat because Harry made sure to text him;

_dress warm!!! :D_

And if that’s not a dead giveaway that they’re going to be doing something outdoors.

It’s still raining when Harry comes to pick him up, so Louis uses one of mum’s old rain coats to shield his hair and the rest of his clothes.

“Hello,” Harry greets, leaning over to give Louis a kiss on the cheek. Louis leans into it, and then brings his hands up to the heater to try and get warm.

“Hey. Will you tell me where we’re going?” He asks, putting on his seatbelt.

“Well, I was going to do something fantastic, but I figured that since it’s only our first date, I wasn’t going to do anything that Future Harry couldn’t top. So… dinner and a movie sound okay?” Louis lets out a sigh of relief, and nods his head.

“Yeah, sounds good.” The thought of spending a rainy Friday night with Harry sounds so amazing he doesn’t really know what to do with himself.

“How’s Olive Garden?” Harry asks, pulling up to a stoplight and turning towards Louis.

“Sound amazing,” He says, pulling out his phone to text him mum and let her know he’s with Harry for the evening.

They ride to the restaurant in silence, Harry drumming the beat to the songs playing on his steering wheel, and Louis adjusting his hair every five minutes.

When they get to Olive Garden, Harry parks the car and turns to Louis. “Don’t move,” He says, getting out of the car and running over to Louis’ side, opening his door and holding a massive umbrella for Louis to get under. Harry holds Louis close to his side as they walk to the front of the building and opens the door for Louis while he stays outside to shake off his umbrella.

“Table for two?” The hostess asks when they get in there, already grabbing two menus.

“Yes, please.” Harry says, holding Louis’ hand while they follow her to their seats.

“What can I get you to drink?” She asks, setting down napkins and silverware as Louis and Harry sit down.

“I’ll have some cranberry juice, please.” Harry says, opening his menu. The waitress nods her head and then turns to Louis.

“Uh, I’ll just have some water, thanks.” The waitress walks away and leaves Harry and Louis to look at their menus. Louis’ never been here before, but Harry seems to have already decided what he wants, because he closes his menu and starts to organize the sugar packets after just a few minutes.

“Do you know what you want yet?” Harry asks, crossing his hands over the table.

“Hmm, thinking about the chicken alfredo. What about you?”

“Oh, I always just get the chicken panini. It’s the best.” Louis turns to look at the sandwich section of the menu, and isn’t too impressed with their options, and he thinks about just getting a caesar salad, but he doesn’t want to be That date- the one who only gets water and orders a salad with dressing on the side. So he settles on getting the chicken alfredo.

When the waitress takes their order and walks away, Louis and Harry are left to themselves. It’s quiet between the two, but not necessarily awkward. It’s kind of nice, because Louis can hear the patter of rain from outside and there’s a little fireplace letting off warm heat just a few seats away. Harry hooks his feet between Louis’ like it’s a completely natural thing, even though lately, it has been. It’s nice.

Their food arrives a little while later, and Louis’ not too hungry after eating almost the entire basket of complimentary bread sticks, but he manages to get a good portion of it eaten while Harry eats his whole panini in record time.

 

They hang around the restaurant after they finish their food, only because the movie they’re going to see doesn’t start for another forty minutes.

When they do leave, it’s barely raining outside anymore, which is kind of nice, but Harry still opens his huge umbrella and holds Louis close while they walk to the car.

The movie they go to is an old one, one that came out a while ago so there’s only a handful of other people in the theatre with them. Harry goes out to buy candy and a drink, and when he comes back, he’s got over five different candies in his hand.

“I couldn’t remember if you said sour gummy bears or not, so I got both. And it’s buy two get two free but the twizzlers weren’t part of the deal. So. I splurged a little.” Louis smiles and takes the box of gummy bears from Harry, pulling their arm rest up and scooting close so he’s cuddling close into Harry’s side, wrapping his left arm around Harry’s front and his right arm behind Harry’s back.

“Thanks, Haz.” Louis says, burying his face into Harry’s neck. When the movie starts, Harry puts his arm around Louis and starts playing with the hair at the back of his neck, twirling his fingers in it and scratching his scalp.

Louis’ not even paying attention to the movie, is only focusing on the smooth glide of Harry’s hand and the smell of his cologne. Halfway through the movie, Louis feels a tap on his shoulder, and when he turns, Harry puts his hand on Louis’ chin and leans down, capturing his lips in his own.

It takes a minute for Louis to actually realize what’s happening, because the last time Harry and him kissed like this, they were both pretty tipsy at Ed’s party. Louis isn’t even sure if Harry remembers that night anyway. Besides, they only ever do small pecks here and there at school, when Harry drops Louis off at his class or one of them can feel the gaze of a student on them. Nothing too raunchy.

So, it’s kind of weird when Harry swipes his tongue across Louis’ bottom lip, and things start to get kind of heated. The last time Louis snogged someone- he was on the better side of drunk, and even before that it was with Greg, almost four months ago. Louis keeps kissing Harry though- only pulls away to catch his breath. Harry keeps his face close to Louis’, staring at him and kissing his lips softly.

Louis puts his hand behind Harry’s head and presses their lips together again. They kiss for a few minutes after that, until Harry’s hands start to wander in between Louis’ legs and his palm starts sliding dangerously close to Louis’ crotch.

Louis pulls away then, because they’re in a public area and he has some decency, and presses a few more kisses to Harry’s lips before grabbing his hand and moving it away from his leg. Harry gives him a little pout, but turns back to the movie. It’s only then that Louis sees the bulge in Harry’s pants, big and inviting and god they’re in a movie theatre for crying out loud.

Louis’ not really sure what comes over him- It starts with an innocent slide of his hand on Harry’s thigh, which could mean anything, really. He can see Harry watching him out of the side of his eye, and when his hand lands directly on Harry’s crotch, he sees the boy’s whole body do a little twitch.

He’s not even sure what’s happening, but soon enough he’s palming Harry through his jeans, just two thin layers of fabric separating him from Harry’s cock. The fact that he could just reach into Harry’s pants and start jerking him off right in the middle of this theatre makes him press his hand down just that much harder. Then Harry starts to rut up everytime Louis pushes down, and it’s only a few minutes later that he can feel Harry come into his pants, biting on his fist and closing his eyes tightly.

When Louis moves his hand away, he looks over to Harry and gives him a small smile, hoping what he did didn’t cross any lines they may have- even though it most certainly did. Harry just smiles back at him, grabbing Louis’ hand and standing up. They leave the barely eaten candy and the empty soda at their seats and walk to the bathroom.

When they get inside, it’s empty of people, and Harry immediately goes into a stall, closing the door slightly and still not saying anything. Louis can hear the sound of Harry’s unzipping his jeans and what must be Harry grabbing pieces of toilet paper to wipe himself off. After a few minutes, Louis hears the toilet flush and Harry walks out, big smile on his face.

“Was that weird?” Louis asks, breaking the silence in the room. Harry walks up to the sink to wash his hands, and Louis’ not sure what else he’s supposed to say because _good movie, huh?_ would be stupid, considering he knows neither him nor Harry actually watched it.

“I don’t think so. Do you?” Harry says, walking over to the paper towels and drying off his hands.

“Uh,” Louis shrugs his shoulders. “I guess not.” Harry walks over to him and presses a kiss to his nose.

“Just. Don’t over think it, yeah?” Harry says, grabbing a hold of Louis’ hand and walking them out of the movie theatre.

Thankfully it’s stopped raining completely, just small drops of water falling off the gutters every now and then. Harry opens the door for Louis, and the only sound in the car is Harry’s music playing on low.

When they get in front of Louis’ house, Harry kisses Louis and squeezes his thigh.

“Text me when you get home, yeah?” Louis says, standing outside the door and adjusting the hood on his coat.

“Okay, babe.” Harry replies gently. Louis shuts the door and runs inside, going straight to his room and changing into his pajamas. He pulls on one of Harry’s sweaters that got left here a while back, and cuddles into bed, waiting for a text from Harry.

It’s about twenty minutes later that the text finally comes in.

_Just got home. about to hop in the shower ;) Xx_

Louis’ not even sure what he’s supposed to do with this kind of information, so he tries to leave it at the back of his head.

**okay, h. sweet dreams. see you monday :) x**

_night, lou! .X_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumblr: hlstyles


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Here’s the sixth and final part to the story! 
> 
> Huge thanks to my wonderful beta, [Allyson](http://www.failtofear.tumblr.com), who has been with me since the third chapter! I couldn't have done it without her. ♡ ♡ ♡

After Louis and Harry’s date on Friday, things between them don’t change at all. Well, sometimes their touches linger and their kisses go further than just a peck, but really, that’s to be expected. They’ve been doing this relationship thing for over two months now- it’d be hard for their relationship to _not_ grow. 

It’s nice, though. Like Louis never feels on edge when he’s with Harry. They started doing this Friday Date Night thing that Harry suggested, and all of them are much like the first one. Harry will pick Louis up around 7, take him for dinner and then whatever they do after that is purely spontaneous. Sometimes they go to the movies, other times they wander around the city; go get ice cream, shop through the mall, hold hands in the park. Couple things.

Him and Harry didn’t even talk about the whole movie theatre thing afterwards. They just moved on- and Louis really loves that about Harry. How nothing is awkward between them- he can tell Harry anything about him, and he’s never phased by it- just talks Louis through it, rubs his hand and presses kisses to his neck until he forgets about it. 

-

Louis was walking to Harry’s car after school when he got a text. Now, Louis _does_ gets texts on the occasion- usually from his mum or Harry. Sometimes Lottie will text him, but other than that, his phone stays relatively inactive. So, when he looks at his phone and sees a text from _Greg_ of all people, he stops walking and rereads it several times just to make sure he’s seeing things right. 

_Hey, Lou! Been a while. Miss you.. XX_

And like, who does Greg even think he is, texting Louis out of the blue like that? They literally haven’t talked in over three months. Louis has made several attempts to save whatever relationship they still had, but all of them went ignored. He’s shocked that when he gets to Harry’s car, the first thing he hears is Harry ask,

“What’s wrong?” Louis hadn’t even realized he was frowning.

“What? Nothing… Just my mum. She left me a list of chores to do when I get home.” Louis lies, turning to put on his seatbelt so Harry doesn’t see the distress on his face. 

“Oh, okay.” Harry says, pulling out of the school parking lot and driving to Louis’ house. They ride in silence, Louis itching to pull out his phone and text back Greg, just to catch up with him. It _has_ been a while. It’d be nice to know what he’s doing with his life. 

When they get to Louis’ house, Louis is about to hop out and run inside before he realizes that Harry is parking his car in the driveway and turning it off, getting out with him. It’s not like it’s unusual for Harry to come over after school, they just hadn’t made plans for it is all. 

Louis tries to act casual about it, but Harry senses something off. 

“Oh, sorry. Did you… Want to hang out? I just… Sorry. Um,” Harry brushes his hair out of his face nervously, and Louis smiles at him.

“Come on you goof.” He says, grabbing Harry’s hand and leading them inside. Greg can wait.

If Louis’ mum knew he was bringing someone inside the house with it looking like _this_ , she would have an absolute fit. The floor hasn’t been vacuumed in days, the sink is full of breakfast dishes and the garbage is in dire need of being taken out. Plus, the laundry basket in the bathroom needs to be emptied and the twins left their art supplies strewn throughout the living room. 

“Right. Sorry about the mess… The girls just got back last night and mum was working until 8 so.” Louis shrugs, taking off his backpack and leading them into the kitchen.

“It’s fine, Lou,” Harry says, opening the fridge and taking out a water bottle. “Where’s this list of chores you need to do?” He asks, taking a long gulp. Louis looks around the kitchen table and holds it up.

“Uh, take out bathroom slash kitchen garbage, sweep floor, vacuum living room, load, run and unload dishwasher, clean towels, pick up art supplies, take chicken out of freezer.” Louis says, looking up at Harry and smiling. “Wow, good thing you came over,” He says, reaching up to rub Harry’s hair. “Well, I guess.. Could you take out the garbage? You don’t have to help. I was kidding. You can go watch TV if you want,” Louis says, suddenly feeling guilty. 

“It’s fine, Louis. I don’t mind.” Harry says, walking over to the garbage and tying the sack before pulling it out. “I’ll be right back,” He says, walking outside. Louis goes to put in a new trash bag, and then starts to load the dishwasher. He’s rinsing off the dishes with water in the sink when Harry walks inside and goes to stand directly behind him, wrapping his arms around Louis and putting his hands directly under the running water to wash them.

“Ah, fuck. Jesus, Lou. That water is hot as hell,” He says, moving away from Louis and drying his hands on a chef’s towel. Louis just laughs and finishes loading up the dishwasher.

“Sorry, babe.” He says, walking over and taking Harry’s hands in his own. “Would you mind going to pick the art supplies? I’ll start sweeping.” Harry nods, kisses Louis’ nose and then gallops off to living room, leaving Louis to himself. 

It doesn’t take long to get the house clean, and Harry even goes as far as washing all the windows and dusting the book shelves. Louis’ sure the house hasn’t been this clean since even before his parents got a divorce. 

“You,” Louis says, pressing Harry up against a wall. “are amazing.” He gets up on his tippy toes and kisses Harry, running his hands through his hair and scratching at his head. Harry hums into the kiss and moves his hands down Louis’ body, resting them on his bum and squeezing firmly. After a minute of kissing, Harry pushes himself off the wall and presses Louis back against it so their positions are swapped.

The kiss starts to get heated, Harry moving his tongue messily inside Louis’ mouth, his hands holding Louis back. Louis’ not even sure how far this going to go until the door slams open and four sets of feet start running up the stairs.

“We’re home!” They yell. Louis quickly pushes Harry off of him and wipes at his lips, trying to do his best to adjust his clothes before his sisters get to the top of the stairs.

“Harry!” The twins yell when they get to living room, running over to give him a hug. Harry smiles and gets down on his knees to hug them properly. Louis smiles at the three of them until he hears Lottie clear her throat. When he looks at her, she’s got a smirk on her face and Louis feels his cheeks turn red.

“Er, hey girls!” He says, trying to act excited. “Um, are you hungry at all? Harry was just about to make some food…” Louis says uncomfortably, looking over to see that Harry is standing up to his feet, wiping off his jeans and looking over at Louis with a confused face.

“Oh, right. Yes. Food. Uh, any requests?” He asks, making eye contact with all five of them. Nobody says anything. “Right.” He scurries off to the kitchen without another word and Louis walks over to the coffee table and starts mindlessly organizing the magazines. 

“So.” Lottie says, leaning up against the wall. “What uh.. What was going on there?” She asks. Louis looks up at her and furrows his eyebrows. 

“Excuse me. I believe someone has homework that needs to be done, no? Mum’s getting off work early tonight and if your homework isn’t done-”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Lottie says, waving a hand at him. “Whatever. I’ll be in my room.” She turns and starts walking up the stairs, Fizz following after her shortly. 

“Pheebs, Daisy. Mum said you two need to have your room cleaned by the time she gets home.” Louis says, causing the twins to frown.

“But Harry’s here!” Daisy says, working up her best pout. 

“Yes, he is- and the sooner you get your room cleaned, the sooner you can play with him, okay?” They run off after that, leaving Louis to stand alone in the living room. He takes a second to collect his thoughts before Harry is walking into the living room. 

“I made mini sandwich- where’d everyone go?” Harry asks, holding a plate full of mini peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Louis gives him a sympathetic smile, rubbing his shoulder.

“Sorry, babe. They’ve gone upstairs. But I am quite hungry,” He says, reaching and grabbing one of the squares. Harry lets out a sigh before grabbing one of his own and eating it all in one bite. Louis tries to not think about it. 

When they finish off the sandwiches, there’s still no sign of the girls so Louis goes up to check on them. The twins are passed out, room somewhat clean, and Fizzy and Lottie are watching TV. 

His mum isn’t supposed to be home for another two hours, so Louis brings Harry up to his room, changes out of his school clothes and gets comfy in his bed. Harry kicks off his shoes and lays down next to Louis, taking up over half the bed. He swings a leg over Louis and cuddles in close, putting his face into his neck.

“Mmm,” Harry says. “M’so tired.” Louis smiles and rubs his hand through Harry’s hair before bringing it down in a feeble attempt to massage his back.

“Thanks for helping me clean today.” Louis says. “I’d probably still be doing it if it weren’t for you.” Harry just hums, pressing a kiss to Louis’ neck.

“It’s not a problem, Lou, honestly. I just like spending time with you.” Louis feels his heart flutter and he can’t help but grin widely and bury his face in Harry’s hair. Harry grips onto Louis tighter and they fall asleep like that- wrapped up in each other with the text from Greg still sitting unanswered in Louis’ inbox. 

-

 

The next day in first period- Harry’s surprised to see that he’s the one taking board notes and Louis is the one texting on his phone. Harry never sees Louis on his phone unless he’s playing fruit ninja or texting his mum.

And like, it’s _fine_. Louis can text whoever he wants- it’s just that he’s been extra secretive about who he’s texting and Harry’s not used to it. Louis usually tells him everything which is why he’s confused that Louis is hiding his phone out of Harry’s view.

“Who are you texting?” Harry asks, trying to make it seem nonchalant by continuing to jot down his notes. Louis doesn’t say anything for a minute, and Harry puts his pencil down to look at him.

“Nobody.” Louis says, still tapping away. “Er.. Well, obviously someone.. just.. no one important.” Harry nods his head, picking his pencil back up and twisting it around in his hand.

“If they’re not important, why can’t I know?” Louis looks over at him and quirks an eyebrow.

“ _Because_ it’s not important.” Louis says. Harry gives him a last thoughtful look before sighing and finishing up his notes. “Can I borrow your notebook after school?” Louis asks after a minute of silence. Even though Harry’s annoyed with him, Louis is the only reason he’s maintaining a C in this class right now. 

“I guess.” He sighs, trying to act annoyed. Louis grins and kisses his cheek, resting his head on Harry’s shoulder. 

“Thanks, babe.” 

-

At lunch, Louis still has his bloody phone in his hand, tapping away on it- not even looking where he’s going which causes him to walk right into Harry, dropping his phone on the floor. 

“Oof,” Louis says, looking up at Harry. “Oh- sorry. I-” Louis cuts himself off when Harry goes to bend down and pick up his phone. Harry tries to glance at the message that’s on the screen, but Louis is taking it out of his hand before he can read anything other than ‘well it’s none of’. “Thanks,” Louis says, pressing a kiss to Harry’s cheek and then going to their table. 

It’s kind of awkward at the lunch table because instead of indulging everyone in conversation, Louis is almost completely silent for the whole thirty minutes. Liam gives Harry a questioning glance when they all clean up their table, but Harry ignores it. Louis barely even kisses Harry before him and Liam are walking to their fifth period together.

The worst part of the day is after school, when Harry drops Louis off at his house and Louis invites him inside to do homework together. It’s kind of pointless, because in the end neither of them end up doing homework. 

“Er, Lou?” Harry says from his spot on Louis’ bed. “Who are you texting?” Louis doesn’t say anything for a minute- just keeps texting until he mumbles ‘nobody.’ And if that isn’t the most frustrating thing Harry’s heard all day.

“Seriously, Lou. You’ve been glued to your phone all day. It’s starting to piss me off.” Louis looks up at Harry then, eyes wider than normal and a frown on his face.

“O-oh. Sorry, I - Sorry.” He locks his phone and sets it on his desk before giving his full attention to Harry.

“Was there something you wanted to talk about?” Harry slams his face into his palms and lets out a sigh.

“I just want to know who you’ve been texting all day. A _name_ maybe?” Louis looks like he’s not about to answer, but then Harry sees him sigh and rub his nose. 

“Um, I kind of have a… date. Friday night.” Harry’s eyes almost bug out of his head and he rubs them, as if that’ll somehow change what Louis just said. 

“You have a _what_?” Louis has a solemn look on his face as he walks over to sit next to Harry on the bed. 

“A date, babe. With Greg.” Harry looks down at his hands for a while, trying to think of why that name sounds so familiar- and then he remembers.

“Greg? The guy in uni? Who..-” Harry can’t even finish the rest of his sentence. _Who took your virginity and then made you feel like shit only to leave and find a new boyfriend? That Greg?_

“Yes. He’s coming home for spring break and he broke up with his boyfriend so. He just wants to catch up, is all.” Harry scoffs.

“Right. Catch up.” Louis hits him in the arm, then.

“Really, Harry? That was rude.” Harry sighs and looks over to Louis.

“Well we have a date Friday night! I was going to take you to see Anchorman.” Louis watches Harry for a minute.

“Take Niall if you want. Or we can go another time… Honestly Harry it isn’t a big deal.” 

“Uh, I thought it kind of was considering you’re supposed to be _my_ boyfriend. How’s it gonna look if someone from school sees you out with another guy?” Louis rubs Harry’s thigh and for once in his life, Harry wants to pull away.

“We’re going, erm. To like… A place that’s kind of far from here? Not really but like, thirty? Yeah, thirty minutes out, uh. He’s staying with a friend? So we were going to meet somewhere in between and get dinner.” Harry feels sick.

“Is that a good idea?” Louis gives Harry a look and furrows his brows.

“Yeah? Why wouldn’t it be? It doesn’t mean anything.” Louis says, like that somehow changes the situation.

“Does _he_ know it doesn’t mean anything?” Harry asks. Louis picks at a loose string on his blanket, not looking at Harry.

“I’m not sure. I won’t like. Let anything happen, Harry. I already made the mistake once. I won’t do it again, okay? I’m 18, not 16. I can handle myself, thanks.” Harry goes to say something, but Lous beats him to it. “Can we not talk about this anymore? I’m getting dinner with him Friday night and that’s that. Okay?” Harry wants to say _no. that is definitely not okay._ But he leaves it, because if Louis is one thing- it’s stubborn. 

-

On Friday, after practice is over and Harry is changing into his regular clothes, Nathan walks over to him and leans against a locker. Harry buttons his pants and looks up, trying to muster up a smile.

“Hey, Nate. What’s up?” He says, pulling his shirt out of his locker.

“Nothing, man. I just… I wanted to like. Say sorry. For giving Louis such a hard time.” Harry’s a bit confused from where this is coming from, considering it’s been over two- almost three months since him and Louis started dating. This conversation sounds like it should have happened ages ago.

“Oh, that’s… I mean, thank you. But it’s been a few months so, as long as you say something to Louis I mean.” Harry tries not to wince at how incomprehensible he’s being. He sits down on the bench and starts pulling on his socks.

“No, I mean for just a few weeks ago. Like, I talked to the nurse about it and she said I deserved the black eye. Made me kind of realize I was a massive prick. Malik can really throw a punch.” Harry looks up at him at that, scratching his head.

“Er.. Sorry mate but I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about.” Nathan glances around the room.

“Look, between you and me, I always thought Zayn was all talk. But after seeing what he did to my eye… I mean. Damn. He’s packs quite the punch.” 

“Wait.. Are you talking about… When you missed a week of practice because someone beat you up… that someone was _Zayn_? Like, Zayn Malik?” Nathan nods his head.

“Yeah. I was fucking with Louis. Being a prick. Zayn walked in and punched me square in the face. Kind of embarrassing.” Harry must not being hearing right.

“So… You were.. giving Louis a hard time? Like.. bullying him?” Nathan nods his head.

“Yeah, man. But I stopped. Like, really stopped. I know Louis still hates me bu-”

“Didn’t you stop bullying him after him and I got together?” Nathan shakes his head.

“No… Well, at first, yeah. But I couldn’t resist. Reckon I gave him a few bruises these past months. Again, I’m really sorry for messing with your boy. I’m like, completely done with that. I mean, what was I thinking? I’m graduating in a few months. I’m 18. I can go to jail. I talked to Louis about it. He still hates me and all which is expected, but. I had to make my peace before I graduated.” Harry feels like the room is spinning. 

Nothing is making sense right now because Louis said… He told Harry specifically that he wasn’t being bullied anymore and… Harry is about to be sick. He pulls on his boots, grabbing his football bag and slamming his locker shut.

“Look, Nate. I appreciate you coming to talk to me. No hard feelings, right? I’ll see you Monday?” Nathan nods his head.

“Yeah, bye Styles. Good practice today.” Harry smiles and runs out of the locker room, into his car, pulling out his phone and dialling Louis’ number. When it goes to voicemail, Harry looks at the clock and it’s 6:30, which, right. Louis’ on a date. With Greg. He groans and instead settles for sending out a text.

_call me when u get this? time doesn’t matter. Xx_

-

Harry paces his room all night, phone in hand with the volume on high. 

How could he be so _stupid_. His fake boyfriend shows up to school with bruises on his wrists and all down his arms and he just accepts Louis’ _‘it’s nothing’_ excuse? That was when they first started ‘dating’ and he- the more he thinks about it, the more he feels like he’s going to vomit. Right in the middle of his bedroom.

Why wouldn’t Louis tell him? These past months, Louis has told Harry basically his whole life story, and he conveniently leaves out the most important part? 

At just after midnight, Harry’s about to go to bed because Louis’ curfew is 11:30, and he should be home by now. Unless… No. He’s not going to think about it.

As he’s tucking himself into his blankets, his phone starts to ring from where it’s charging on his desk. He flails in bed for a second before shooting up and seeing Louis’ lovely face on his phone screen.

“Hello?” He say, before the phone can ring more than three times.

“Harry! Helloooo,” Louis says, voice bright and happy. “What’s up babe?” Harry nibbles on his lip.

“Louis, I- Are you _drunk_?” He asks, disbelievingly. Even though Louis is clearly not with Greg, it makes his stomach uneasy to think of Greg trying to get Louis wasted.

“Nah. I mean, I had a bit of wine because Greg was paying for everything, but. I’m not even a little tipsy.” Harry lets out a sigh. Okay, not tipsy. He can do this. 

“So. How was the date?” And, apparently, he can’t do this. Louis lets out a low sigh.

“I mean. Honestly?” Harry nods his head even though Louis can’t see him. “It was pretty shit. I mean, I don’t know what I was expecting but… He was kind of a dick? Yeah, definitely a dick. Like he was such a shit to the waitress. I had to throw down some money for a tip because he wasn’t even going to leave anything.” Even though it’s messed up, Harry’s happy to hear that the date was a flop. He’s not saying anything, but he totally called it.

“So, we meet at the restaurant, yeah?” He doesn't wait for Harry to say anything. “And, I don’t know. Probably because _you’re_ a proper gentleman, I was expecting.. I dunno. Like, a nice treating to, you know? Pull out my chair, kiss my hand, nothing like, too extreme. Those are reasonable things to expect from a date, right? I’m not going crazy?” Harry chuckles.

“Nope, not going crazy.” He says. Louis doesn’t laugh.

“So, apparently he joined a _frat_ thing, place, I don’t know… whatever they’re called… and when he said he wanted to catch up with me, what it really turned out to be was him talking the whole time about things that have happened to him during uni, which, okay. That’s nice that you’re having a good time, but he wouldn’t even let me get a fucking sentence in. After the first twenty minutes I was ready to dump my soup on his head.” Harry doesn’t say anything, because even though he knew this date would be bad, it still makes him sad to hear Louis so upset about it.

“It’s whatever, though. I guess I kind of needed to like.. get it out of my system. I always used to think like, what if I truly had feelings for him and I’d missed out he chance to be with him because… I don’t know- he goes to school like two hours away and I didn’t want to make the commitment? But, yeah. I’m done with him. I added his number to my spam list and everything.” Harry smiles. 

“I’m sorry it was shit for you. I’ll make up for it next week by taking you on a proper date. Treat you like a gentleman should.” Louis giggles down the line and it makes Harry’s heart flutter.

“Thanks, Haz. So, what did you want to talk about?” 

“Oh, I-” And suddenly, Harry doesn’t want to have this conversation over the phone- when Louis can easily hang up on him and avoid him all weekend. “I was just seeing if I left my practice jersey at your house?” He hears Louis hum over the phone, then the sounds of his blankets ruffling. 

“You know what, mate? It is here. In my hamper.” Harry already knows that. He put it in there three days ago when he went to Louis’ to not do homework. 

“Um, are your sisters here this weekend?” He asks.

“They are, but my dad’s taking them out to see a ballet tomorrow.” Harry hums. 

“Are you busy tomorrow?” 

“Well, I was going to go with my mum to my nan’s house. Why?” 

“Oh, I was going to see if you wanted to come over to mine for lunch or something? My mum and Robin are going up to see my aunt for the weekend so I won’t have anything to do. But if you want to go see your nan I understand.” Louis clears his throat.

“Oh, I’d love to! I’m sure my mum would like a girls day, anyways. Um, she’s leaving after 11, so she could drop me off at yours then? I just don’t want to make you drive all the way to mine just to go back to yours.” Louis says nervously.

“11 is fine. I don’t mind picking you up, though, Louis. Really. If you wanted to sleep in or something. 

“No, it’s fine. I-” Louis does a little chuckle over the line. “Is it weird that I really wish you were here right now to give me a cuddle?” Harry stills from where he’s pacing his room and clears his throat.

“I-I can come over if you want,” He says, grimacing at how fast he just offered himself to Louis. 

“If I could transport you over here and somehow avoid my mum’s interrogations in the morning, I would, without a second thought.” Harry’s actually smiling so big right now his cheeks are hurting.

“Well, in ten and a half hours you’ll be here, yeah?” And when did Harry suddenly turn into That guy, who goes seven hours without seeing his fake boyfriend and suddenly starts counting the hours until they’ll be together again? Thankfully Louis isn’t making fun of him for it.

“Yeah, ten and a half hours.” He says it as a sigh, and Harry bites his lip to try to keep himself under control. “I’m gonna head to bed, Harry. I’ll see you in the morning?” Harry tries to calm himself before he says anything.

“Yeah. Night, Lou.” 

“Night, H.”

-

Harry doesn’t get much sleep that night. On one hand he’s excited to spend the day with Louis, but he’s just really not looking forward to talking to Louis about being bullied. Harry’s really not good with confrontation and Louis seemed so sad over the phone last night.

At 10, Harry gets up and very kindly pushes his mum and Robin out the door before going to kitchen to look for something he can make Louis for lunch.

He settles for fajitas, only because he’s made them for Louis once before and he loved them. He cuts up some chicken and season it before putting it in a pan. He slices some vegetables and puts it all in some tortillas before sliding the pan into the oven and waiting for Louis. 

It’s not until 11:30 when Harry hears a knock on the door, and when he goes to answer it, Louis’ smiling at him softly, wearing sweatpants and a big sweater.

“Hi,” He says, walking inside and wrapping his arms around Harry. He buries his face into Harry’s neck, and Harry indulges him, holding onto Louis tightly and rubbing his back. “Smells really good in here,” Louis mumbles into his neck. 

“Thanks. I made fajitas.” Louis looks up at him and grins.

“You’re amazing,” He says, pulling out from the hug and holding up a white shirt in front of Harry’s face. “Brought your practice jersey. Even washed it for you.” Harry smiles and takes it from him, kissing his cheek and grabbing Louis’ hand to lead him into the kitchen.

“Are you hungry? We can always eat later. I know fajitas aren’t really an 11:30 lunch food, but.” Louis smiles and nods his head.

“I’m starved. Didn’t wake up until half an hour ago. Mum was annoyed with me.” He takes a seat at the table and Harry walks over to the oven to take out the fajitas. 

“Do you want salsa or something?” Harry asks as he walks over to the fridge. “Something to drink?” 

“Water, please. And yeah, salsa’s good.” Harry sets the plate of fajitas on the table and walks back to get a glass for Louis. By the time he actually sits down, Louis is already eating one of the fajitas. 

“Mmm, this is so good, Haz.” He says around his food. Harry blushes and grabs his own fajita, hands slightly shaky from this conversation he’s about to have. He feels like if Nathan had never came up to him in the locker room yesterday, he could be cuddling Louis on the couch right now, watching Breaking Bad.

They don’t talk for a while though, just sit there and eat their food in silence. Louis has three fajitas, and when he’s done, he helps Harry do the dishes. 

“Um. Louis can we talk for a minute?” Harry asks after all the dishes are put away. Louis gives him a look, but nods his head and lets Harry lead him to the table. 

“Haz? What’s this about?” Louis asks, biting his lip nervously after Harry doesn’t say anything for minute.

“I-” Harry swallows thickly and then just goes right out with it. “Why didn’t you tell me you were still being bullied?” Louis stops swinging his legs and looks at Harry, eyes wide.

“ _What_?” Louis asks. Harry closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

“You’re still being bullied. Or you were.” Louis starts to shake his head.

“N-No I’m not? That’s. Did Zayn say something?” Harry frowns at him.

“What? No. _Nathan_ came up and apologized to _me_ for giving you such a hard time. Obviously I had no idea what he was talking about- considering that conversation should have happened ages ago. Then I find out just a few weeks ago he was messing with you in the locker rooms? And _Zayn_ punched him in the face? What the hell, Louis? You lied to me about that. And then got Zayn to lie to me, too?” 

“No! Harry, it’s not Zayn’s fault. Don’t be mad at him. I made him promise not to tell you. Don’t- Don’t blame him.” Harry rubs his head, watching Louis thoughtfully.

“I’m not mad at anyone, Louis. I just want to know why you lied to me. You’re still being bullied and I mean, what was even the point of doing this whole thing if nothing changed?” Louis has tears in his eyes, and Harry wants to throw himself off his chair.

“Is that really a question, Harry?” Harry doesn’t say anything, just watches Louis until he says something. “It’s _embarrassing_ , God. How would you feel, being bullied because you’re gay, and having everyone make fun of you? And then one of the fittest guys in school comes up and asks to be your pretend boyfriend? You know how _dumb_ I felt? I felt so stupid. Like, I wanted to resent you when we first started dating but then of course you were the nicest guy ever. You held my hand and let me rant about stupid stuff and you were nice to my sisters and you _cleaned my house_ , Harry. What was I supposed to do?” 

“You could have told me you were still being bullied, Louis.” Harry says. Louis glares at him, rubbing his eyes.

“Right. Come crying to you every time someone pushed me into a locker? I-I was afraid you would drop me when you realized this whole thing wasn’t working. And. I didn’t want to lose you, okay? You.. I don’t know. You’re my only friend, really. I just- God I don’t know.” He doesn’t say anything for a minute. “I’m probably.. no, definitely in love with you, so.” Harry almost gives himself whiplash from how fast he turns his head to look at Louis.

“Wh- You-” He clears his throat. “You love me?” Louis looks up at him and shrugs.

“I mean, what was I supposed to do? Keep hating you? Act like every time we kissed and cuddled or held hands that it was all just friendly? I don’t know, Harry. Can you just take me home, please? I’m a mess and this is absolutely embarrassing so.” Harry reaches across the table and grabs Louis’ hand.

“You really love me?” He tries not to smile too big when he sees Louis blush.

“ _Yes_ , Harry. Can we stop talking about it now? Christ.” Harry gets up and walks over to Louis, holding his face between his hands. Louis looks up at him and Harry can still see tears in his eyes.

“Lou, are you kidding? I’ve been gone for you since… I don’t know. Maybe the day you wouldn’t let me copy off your chapter six notes in chemistry?” Louis closes his eyes and leans forward so his face is pressed into Harry’s shoulder.

“Fuck off, Harry. Are you taking the piss right now? Because it’s not funny.” Harry laughs and pulls Louis’ face, moving so their lips are almost touching. 

“Not lying.” Harry says. Louis does a wet laugh and then leans forward, capturing Harry’s lips in his own. Harry kisses him back for a minute, putting his hands on Louis waist and pecking him three times before pulling away. “For the record, I never would have dropped you.” He adds. Louis puts his hands Harry’s shoulders and smiles.

“Well, how was I supposed to know that?” He laughs. “I mean, did you really think I thought I had a chance with you?” Harry kisses him again.

“I thought that around the time we started snogging in private you would have got the idea that I liked you back.” Louis laughs at that, throwing his head back.

“Oh my God. I thought you were just..- I don’t know. I wasn’t going to _question_ it.” Louis buries his face back into Harry’s neck and laughs. Harry squeezes Louis’ waist until he looks up at him, smiling softly. “I love you,” He whispers, running his hands through Harry’s hair. 

“I love you, too.” Harry says, leaning down and kissing Louis. Louis hums, holding onto Harry tighter. They kiss languidly for a while, until Louis wraps his legs around Harry’s waist, holding their bodies close together.

Harry picks him up, Louis gasping into his mouth and gripping his waist tighter. He walks them into his bedroom and lays Louis down on his bed, going in between his legs and kissing down his neck. 

“Harry,” Louis breathes, grabbing his arm and bringing him back up so they can kiss again. Harry keeps his hand on Louis’ cheek and kisses him until Louis pushes him off, causing him to land on his back. Louis rolls on top of him and continues kissing him, moving his hands down to Harry’s jeans and fumbling with the button.

“Can I suck you off?” Louis asks, already reaching for the zipper. Harry nods his head, reaching down to slip off his shoes.

“Yeah, God, yes.” He says, helping Louis pull off his jeans once he has the zipper down. Louis starts palming Harry through his boxers, looking up and leaning forward to kiss Harry again. He pulls away from the kiss and starts tugging at Harry’s shirt. 

“Take this off,” He says, still working his hand over Harry’s boxers.

Once Harry is naked aside from his underwear, Louis kisses him one last time before taking them off, grabbing Harry’s dick in his hand and moving his hand up and down it. Harry’s hands are fisting the bed, and Louis leans down to put the tip in his mouth, swirling his tongue around the head.

“Lou,” Harry says, putting his hands into Louis’ hair and groaning when Louis holds his hips down. After a minute, he takes Harry almost all the way, and starts to hum around it, putting his hand around the part that he can’t reach. 

He’s goes for a few minutes, but Harry’s definitely not going to last long. The last time he got a blowjob was a few months before he started dating Louis- and it’s not helping that Louis’ cheeks are flushed and his lips are dark red. His eyes are wet and his lashes are sticking together, it only takes one more flick of his tongue and Harry’s coming down his throat. 

Louis works Harry through it, only stops when Harry lays boneless on the bed. Louis plops down next to Harry, and he can see the tent in Louis’ sweatpants, so he quirks an eyebrow at Louis and then sticks his hand down Louis’ boxers, jerking him until he comes in his pants. 

They lie there silently, Harry completely naked and Louis with all his clothes on until Louis shifts uncomfortably, slides off his sweatpants, and then takes off his shirt. Harry forgets for a minute that he’s actually allowed to look at Louis like this, so he rolls over and swings a leg across his stomach, cuddling into Louis’ side. Harry notices that there’s still a lot of come dried to Louis’ thighs and stomach, so he kisses his cheek before getting up and walking into the bathroom to wet a flannel.

He wipes Louis off, tosses the flannel across his room and then resumes his previous position on the bed. Louis rubs his hand through Harry’s hair until they both fall asleep tangled with each other.

-

That night, after Harry has made them both dinner and they watch a movie together, they’re curled up in Harry’s bed, Louis’ back pressed closely to Harry’s front and their legs tangled together at the bottom of the bed. 

This morning, Harry had expected for Louis to do a lot of yelling, maybe throw a few things at him, storm out the house and never talk to him again. He definitely didn’t expect Louis to end up as his actual boyfriend.

“You know what?” Louis says, turning around in the bed so he’s facing Harry. “I was just thinking about how weird it would be on Monday now that we’re together, but then I remembered everyone already thinks we’re dating.” Harry smiles and runs a hand through Louis’ hair. 

“Yeah. We’re probably going to be ten times more coupley at the lunch table now.” Louis grins and rubs his foot along Harry’s leg.

“Niall’s gonna be ecstatic about that,” Louis jokes. 

“If he can eat a four layer sandwich and stuff chips in his mouth at the same time, I think we’ll be allowed to kiss every once in a while.” Louis giggles and curls into Harry more.

“Yeah?” He says, looking up at Harry with crinkly eyes.

“Yup.” Harry replies, leaning down and kissing Louis. “Hey, if you thought I was a gentleman when we were fake boyfriends, you’ll be in for a surprise when you see me as a _real_ boyfriend.” Louis grins at that, rubbing Harry’s back softly.

“And you still owe me a date to make up for Greg’s shitty one.” Harry hums, threading his fingers through Louis’ hair.

“I've’ve already got it all planned out in my head. This Friday. Maybe we’ll have it extend ‘till Saturday.” Harry winks. Louis looks up at him and laughs, bright and loudly.

“You’re so dumb.” Louis says. “If you think you’re getting into my pants on the first date, you're in for a-" But Harry cuts him off, leaning down and kissing him softly. Louis kisses him back, slow and soft and as Harry falls asleep that night, he can’t think of a single place he’d rather be than here- in his bed with his body tangled in Louis’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want, you can send me prompts on my [tumblr.](http://www.hlstyles.tumblr.com) Or just come say hi!
> 
> Feedback and comments are always appreciated. ♡


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